The Deep 3 Podcast - Predicting The 2nd Round of The NBA Playoffs | Ep. 210

Episode Date: May 4, 2026

NBA Playofffs Round 2 Preview! #nba   Check out the TD3 merch: https://the-deep-3-shop.fourthwall.com/   Listen on Spotify!: https://open.spotify.com/show/3elbbqVumwqz8wlIdknsLW   Listen on Apple Podcasts!: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-deep-3-podcast/id1657940794   Follow us on TikTok!: https://www.tiktok.com/@thedeepthree   Follow us on Instagram!: https://www.instagram.com/thedeep3podcast/   Isaac's twitter: https://twitter.com/byisaacg   Mo's twitter: https://twitter.com/Mojo99_   Donnavan's twitter: https://twitter.com/Dsmoot3D   0:00- intro 4:07- Celtics vs 76ers recap 35:35- Hawks meltdown recap 38:40- Magic vs Pistons game 7 recap 47:29- Pistons vs Cavs preview 1:00:41- Knicks vs 76ers preview 1:20:27- Lakers vs Thunder preview 1:29:39- Nuggets slander (and Spurs vs Timberwolves preview) 1:46:47- new NBA lottery rules incoming 2:10:10- NBA logo bracket Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Some of you guys up here Man are you shitty I could smell y'all from across the room as soon as I walked in Smell like piss in here Smell like piss Smell like shit smell like like vomit Smell like everything of the sort You know what it smells like? What does it smell like? Your upper lip

Oof, good one 12 year old Moe. No what else is it smells like? 55 point lost and again close out game That's what it smells like But I'm not even really focused on your stench I'm used to that I sit next to you every day There's something shitty around here It's something way shit here.

It's fresh. It's fresh as hell. It's pungent. I'm focused on a 3-1 loss from a team that we've been talking about should dominate their conference with ease. Should be in the finals. Something about 55 wins in a gap year. Some about I own Joelle Bede. Something about the sixers are light.

P.U. P.U. That's about 3-1 lead. Blown. Beasol's, how does this feel to smell like the shittiest person in the room? Took a shower this morning. Not going to know. me can't be me

might be my team though you took a shower this morning what type of soap did you use three and one she still thinks and what will LeBron say everyone in here can talk not you though oh whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa your shit is way worse no no shit is way worse

bro teams get belting in the playoffs all the fucking time the warriors back in 2020 lost by like 50 in the second round to the Warriors and presented to the Memphis Grisian presented to proceed to go on to the win the championship. Keep it better all the time in the playoffs. That shit don't matter. 50?

Who gives a fuck? 3-1? You're in history. Raise your hand if your team has a ring since the 70s. It's quite as a bit. Yeah. Yeah. You know what time is today, chat?

I got to back it down. We just got it. Shout out to 73. Okay. You said you suck. You suck. Why are you challenging each other to admit off? You both suck.

That's the crazy part. And man, man, man, those goddamn Celtics. We were talking about them is our clear-cut finals favorites. We've been saying there's three serious teams in the NBA who can win a ring. Thunder, Spurs, Celtics. And it's off the merit of them being so proven in the playoffs, so ready with Jason Tatum back, so much better than the rest of their piss poor conference. Here you are.

The most piss, the most poor. I love sports, man. Sports is for me. You know what's funny, man. it's funny how we can all be wrong yet I get cloned see I can be wrong and be happy because evil lost

that when the Celtics go down the axis of evil has fallen this is a glorious day for me I love to be wrong when it comes to the Celtics you just got to be double wrong wrong and sad we like again

we're wrong we can live our lives exactly I don't give a damn you and your family y'all come from this your personal life has actually been a

by this. So of course we're going to sit here a lot. And because of that, I feel for you. So I got you a little gift to hopefully raise your spirits on those glorious day so we can have a two-hour podcast without you being down on the dumps crying. So I'm going to give this to you real quick. Such a nice guy, man. What is this? He's so thoughtful. Real courteous, man. All the time. Isaac really just, he thinks

about other people so much. What is this, man? I know. What is this? Can I open it? Hell yeah, you can. It's for you to open. You should open it. Go ahead and what do you see. Piss. Piss. Oh, hell. Oh, hell no. What is this?

A 76er shirt. That's tough. Welcome to the episode. I thought it said champions. Couldn't be. Couldn't be. We're throwing it back. That's crazy.

He was bragging. The cranium is crazy. Oh, my God. Thank you. Crowd eaters rejoice. Yeah, it doesn't start you need that gift a little bit That'll raise your spirits knowing you can have you know like It's like wearing your dad shirt almost when you're a little kid going to bed

All right. Let's calm down. Let's calm down. I try to get you in a beat shirt so your real dad would be on your chest Didn't have prime shipping so I couldn't do that but just imagine the B's name is on the back. I do having a bead jersey. Oh, you do? When did you get it?

Listen, man, I used to do a lot of things for gifted subs. We'll talk about gifted subs. A subgo was reached. What? He said I used to do a lot of things, man. That sounded crazy. What the fuck? PG-13.

You're not what I'm saying? You're like Kinky Souls, just keeping a PG-13? Yeah. All right. So like we said up top, we'll start by talking about the end of the first round. Before we get to the main topic, as you guys see, Batato, which is our second round preview. We got to start by talking about three game sevens, a astroclas by the Atlanta Hawks, and the rest of the first round that ended since our last episode.

Let's begin with none of the other. and the Boston Celtics blowing a 3-1 lead. Outside of us laughing at Beesoles, this is the most fascinating loss to me in years as far as tracking the narrative arc of the 2026 Celtics. All of us believe they win the conference. Up here, I think we did our power rankings

before this season ended. Did we all have in top three? Yeah, yes, 100%. That was like near unanimous. They were the best team in the East. Because of the flaws, we see with the Pistons in the first round going on 3-1 and the regular season with the lack of experience,

lack of jump shooting, lack of creation, etc. the Knicks being so inconsistent over the years and us feeling how we feel about their star players who else is out there? The Cavs being relatively unsurious and making the trade at the deadline. All these things that were kind of haunting the rest of the Eastern Conference,

we felt like we had to give it to the Celtics because they'd been there before and they proved that the way they retooled their roster they should be the favorites. Fascinating that we got there after the season started where we thought after losing all these players, they'd have no chance.

They'd be in the best interest to tank because we thought they'd be a six or seven seed and they proved us wrong. They made Hugo Gonzalez. Baylor Shireman, Jordan Walsh, Nemeas Kato, all these guys develop into being ready-made role players to contend right away and the whiplash of us saying, okay, you've done so good in the regular season. Joe Mozilla is having one of the most brilliant coaching seasons I've ever seen

to make those guys so good. We trusted and believe that, okay, we've seen you do it before. You're back to make contender level. As soon as it crashed and burn the playoffs, my immediate mind went to, why didn't I have the foresight to see this cast of characters coming as playoff drivers? I should have been smarter and not coasted so hard off the brilliance the regular season and considered more the playoff elements. We don't have to beat ourselves up like that.

I think because I think it could have seen part of it coming though. Maybe, but also like Peyton Pritch said this after the game too. He was like you guys weren't saying this when we were up 3-1. You know, like they had an inability to close the series. But all the things that were working in the regular season, it was happening at the start of the series. Like they were they were up 3-1. They were finding success. I think it's just the funniest part about this is that the downfall is just literally the same every single year.

Exactly. That's exactly the point. That's the funny part. And it's like even in a new era, if they, if they would have lost, I would have been, I would have been much, much more like, okay, you know, stuff happens if it was in a different way. But you come out and we're breaking threes over and over and over. And there were even points where Derek White. especially in game seven. He was shooting the ball well.

It wasn't one of those terribly bad Derek White shooting games. And the offense gets still. You don't have Jason Tatum out there. Even when Jason Tatum was there in the series, there were times where the offense felt very 22-ish, very Imei Udoca-ish. We're just going to-

Yeah. We're just trying to get our game off. But I think for the Celtics, it's just like, y'all really can't get out of your own way. And at this point, I don't think, as long as Jalen Brown, Jason Tatum and Missoula are there, I don't think we can expect them to lose games or lose series in any other way.

They will die by that three. Yeah, this is in the fabric of the team. Yeah, I agree. And I do think, like, this is the whole idea. And this is what they do. They live and buy the either three. But I think at the end of the day, no matter what way you try to slice it, although they're supposed to be like a gap year, they weren't supposed to be.

in the range of like being one of the best teams in the Eastern Conference, damn near winning 60 games. I think they won 56 to be specifically. This is all in all like one of the more disappointing things that I've seen in a little while because, you know, the Tatum didn't play, but regardless of Tatum's, they are not towards the end of the series. They still should have won this. And I think my biggest thing is like, damn, bro, like, although like the game plan should have worked and all that, I think the biggest crux of the situation is like, yeah, like this team looks like what everyone thought they

should have looked like in the first place at the beginning of the year where their big man rotation was your big man rotation. Nicole of Uruzvich was thrown in there. He did absolutely nothing. And this is what like Jalen Brown first option hoops like really would lead you to a whole lot of nothing. Yeah. More turnover than fucking assist, bro.

Exactly. I think several things are true. I don't regret being so high on them after the rate was season they had. It was amazing. And when they got Tatum back, we said it's so clear they rebuilt the foundation of this team. the offball movements they installed their offense to make them different than they were in the past couple years where it was a lot more Jason Tatum, driving kick,

three point explosion type of offense. They did a lot of split action, tons of offball movement, getting guys going down field. They knew that Jaylen Brown, half-core hoops couldn't replicate what Jason Tatum does, so they built him more off-ball movement to get him going and be able to take advantage of his skills, right? There was enough differences in schematics

that we saw from Joe Mazzo that was brilliant in the regular season. I believe that would translate. And those young guys have been so good for the whole season that all I could do is believe it's real. if I came up here and said, I don't trust these young guys, it would be like, what are we watching for?

No, they just showed us for 82 games. We should trust them. So 10 times out of 10, I'm going to believe that and trust them because Joe Mazulah, and the Celtics had earned that right. Game 7.

Luca Garza, 04 2 from 3. Dakes. Baylor-Shireman, 04 from 3. Fuck. Ron Harper Jr., O for 1 from 3. Shit. Jordan Walsh, O for 2 from 3. Oh, my God.

Hugo Gonzalez, O for 3 from 3. The whole cast of characters of young players they turned around and made into a team that's good enough to not have a gap year, played like a cast of characters

that we thought would lead to a gap year in the beginning. So it all kind of came full circle and it leads me to believe that I, again, I don't regret it because how could we have had this foresight? But it's not shocking to me that we look back and like you just said. The words you phrased is who we thought that were beginning of the season proved to be right

in the end come playoff time. We should have considered that more instead of just looking at the beautiful nerd basketball that Joe Missoula did and assuming it would translate just because it translated in 2024 when the roster was very different. We should have had a little bit more thought into can this type of saving, I mean, covering up for your big man group being mediocre by having a lot of wings crash the rebounds and win the possession battle. Can that

translate? Can these role players that shoot really won the playoffs be relied upon when they've never been in a high leverage game a day in their life? Can that translate? Can only having ball handlers being Jalen Brown, Derek White and Peyton Pritchard that can consistently create a paint touch? Can that translate when you have a big manly dwell in the bead? I would probably should have thought a little bit more about will the regular season success automatically mean playoff success. But, okay, so we, yes, we were right, but also our entire tone on the team change once Tatum came back.

Exactly for sure. So like all the stuff that we're saying, if Tatum never, never came back, I would have never three, you know, two weeks ago been like, oh yeah, the Celtics can make it to the NBA finals. Yes, the Celtics can do this, can do that. I purely thought that because Jason Tatum came back and was playing at the level that that he was. Now, was I nervous that, that he could last.

The last the playoff run? Yes, I was. And that proved to be right because they're playing in 40 minutes a night. And even though that we're not even in the second round yet, that was one of my big concerns of like, once you start getting to every other day, the consistency of being able to do that and play at this level of intensity, when you just told your Achilles 10 months,

you just started playing basketball two months ago, a month and a half ago, that's a very, very big ass. I'm not sure if we could do all of that. And for game seven specifically, when you don't have Tatum there, it really is y'all piss down your leg and it's every it's everybody who pissed down the leg they had wide open shots at the end of the game once you come back from 18 and you still have opportunities to take the lead to do this some of the files that they had were some of the most brain dead unaware fouls of any defender at like just complete lack of knowledge of time score leverage ability

all of that, they did that, they weren't able to make shots down in the stretch. Missoula started in Ron Harper Jr., which is crazy. You know what piss me off? He started him for four minutes. Yeah. Like, what was the point, right? What was the point, man? So I said all that about we should have seen some of the roster deficiencies coming.

Other part of that conversation, Joe Missoula, man. In the regular season, by far and away the best coach in the NBA this year, I think. several seasons now where he has not been an elite playoff coach and it's almost like a playoff dropper as a coach the way that he doesn't make adjustments

and the way that he goes out on his sword is like you know sometimes it works and you know living down but what brought you here lots of coaches do it the fact that this style they play has so much variance leads to a lot more dying by it than other coaches do that are so hard-headed

and it just leads to you just simply have to acknowledge that while he may be maybe him and his staff may be some of the most brilliant minds in the NBA come break season and maximizing players, they don't have that playoff resume. Yeah, I'm going to be honest, there's a lot of blame to share here. But every time I just try to analyze what I saw, as much as we want to, we probably will give a lot of flack to Jalen Brown.

I've been very low on Derek White this series. There's a lot to go to Jay and, hey, listen, I just keep on reverting back to Joe, dog. Because I've never seen a team revert from what made them successful in the playoffs in the regular season, excuse me, and just go away from that in the playoffs this fast, this quick, and repeatedly too. Yeah. Like, I feel like when we look at the Celtics, we've looked at them from the lens of like, honestly, just last year and this year, 24, they got it done.

But you really got to go all the way back to 2023, even in that Miami series when we had to come back from 03 against the eight-seated Miami heat. It brought back a lot of trauma to me. I ain't going on. Yeah, I understand. And, you know, we were talking about all his blame to go over. round on the Celtics part. The real matter here is they were up three one. They would have won the series of everything stayed the same. Shit did not stay the same. You know while he said the

Sun, the Celtics had absolutely no chance to losing the series before the series started? Because we thought Joelle and B wouldn't play because he's having appendicitis three weeks ago. He came back mid-series and became your father. He immediately flipped the series on its head. His ability to be rent protector made it so all those guards couldn't get any paint touches at all. It became straight up. You have to live in that by the three because his rep protection is changing the game. and then defensively for the Celtics throwing the biggest giant skilled motherfucker in the world

into the middle of that offense completely changed the skill level that these bigs have and whether or not you can survive with Namia's Keda and Luca Garza. You cannot when Joelle and Bede is here. You can when he's not. So we're talking about all this blame

that goes around. It kind of does come back down to the fact that Joelle and Bede changed the series almost single-handedly. Yeah. I mean, like I said, we're about to smoke the Celtics back

as much as possible, but there's a lot of credit to be given to the Sixers for real. Yeah. I think this is a team that got healthy at the right time. I looked at how many minutes

VJ, Tyrese, Paul George, and Joelle and Bede played this season. It's not much. Yep. And we're getting them healthy at the right time. So there's a lot of credit to give to the Sixers. The last thing about the Celtics and one of the more, like, fascinating stats that I seem,

is seeing how their three-point rate, it's so rare to say this for very specific teams. But for this team in this postseason specifically, they ended up taking way more threes. in the playoffs and they actually did in the regular season. Yeah. And going back to like, of course, like when as soon as well and B came back, then it completely like fried their entire offense.

They only scored over 100 points one time. And that was when Tatum was there still, of course. And that was Joel and B's the first game back. And that's when they put up, they got like 120 put up against them. But after that, bro, the Celtics, they failed to score. They scored 97 points, 93 and just 100 points in that game 7. Join B changes everything. Everything.

He was amazing. Legacy game in Game 7, he came out and he performed. And again, it's amazing that he did this off of an appendicitis. No more appendix in his body. Off of a surgery. Came back a week earlier than unexpected. Already couldn't move because of the physical just deterioration that's happened over the last two years.

He's not mobile on defense. He's way less mobile offensively, but still immensely skilled, immensely smart, makes the right reads, incredible shooter, all these things that he can still do. he got the most out of his game he possibly could in this series felt like he was hurt every two seconds left all in the line and again

single handedly beat the team not single handedly beat but single handedly allowed his team to have enough to beat the team that we all think was head and shoulders above the rest of the Eastern Conference yeah shout shout to nb he really did his thing shout to Tyreys Maxie and shout out to Joe George

the whole crew the whole gang y'all I've been testing BJ Edgecombe do it again you like three more kept doing this. Fuck, man. And you know what?

It really doesn't matter if Vij does it again because he did it already. Yep. He got you out of there. So as in my head, Vijay, your job is done. You can rest.

I'm sure you'd love him to rest now. Yeah, you can rest. In your head, yeah, fuck out of here. Tyre's Maxey was amazing. In this role, that was actually, that was ridiculous.

You're so gross. He wasn't even joking. What the fuck was that? You're good. It is funny though. You've been talking. talking all year like oh i can't wait to play the nix again you don't even get the chance ever again well i was talking about if joe mazumo can pull this off and make the finals win the

finals we were talking about this might be more of the greatest coaching seasons i've ever seen the two teams we own we can't talk shit about it no in the aggregate we would have won how quickly things changed from joe mazoula's having a legendary coaching year this might be a legendary self-thex team that finds a way to win it gets inexplicable odds to yeah first on exit you should have been gone farther petered out you're a failure disappointment yeah that's most crazy Mike Dan Tony with some bopping him. Some bopping him.

Some bopping him. But to glaze, Isaac, Tyrese, brother, he's leveled up as a player. I think he put himself in this playoff run so far into like a different category, just like elite level players. And like I think he's actually like a superstar now in my mind. Nice. Seeing how many different coverages that Joe Missoula put on him and seeing how he just was like at all times is too quick, too good of a shooter, too good of a. tough shot maker from all three levels of the court being a better playmaker than he was before and not missing like simple easy reads and seeing how he bro he gave everyone problems there

derrick white supposedly like a lot of people would claim to be one of the three four maybe five best promoted defenders in the NBA he was a fucking terrible as a disaster to deal with the speed of tyrant maxi was a difference in these late games the having a foundation of joel and bid and the gravity he brings and the constant mismatch advantage of Tyrese's speed and ability to create a paint touch. It's such a stark difference to what the Celtics had on the other side where none of their guards would create a paint touch, like at all. They had almost zero ability to score in the paint when Sherell and B came back into

the series. It showed you the value of Tyre's Maxi that like whether he's the first option, second option, third option, depending on which stars are around him, that's an incredible playoff tool. It's almost like Jaylin Brunson's mid-range game late in these series in these recent years we've seen, how that's a consistent just look you can get to when things bogged down. there's no bogging down for Tyris Maxie because no one's fast at the same front of him

unless you have like a Sarr Thompson or some other one of the best gifted defenders of all time or like Wembe behind him who if he gets the paint doesn't matter which most teams don't have and the Knicks don't have so we'll see how that goes in round two Tyrese's Maxey's pain touches will always be a lifeline for your offense bro he played 45 minutes

It's still fast as hell yeah he's playing 40 minutes every single night and it never seems like he gets tired at any stretch of the game he has these moments where there are sometimes where like his jumper may not be following or he'll go to the room and it's not going but he scores in like bunches and so then once he starts getting going I honestly like more so than a lot of people in in the league and it might be like a top

like 10 thing but he he can put up he can go on like personal at all runs I feel like more than they almost like anybody outside of like lucca and she and and those guys he's up there with them. And so to basically have a near triple double 45 minutes and just keep doing this game in and game out for three point attempts, he's going straight downhill. Yeah. Going to the rim every single time. And I think that for for Philly, now that you do have this combo, now that you actually are seeing the version of the Sixers that in their mind they were going to, they were going to get even last year, oh, or I guess this year with VJ, but you have a back court. You have Joel and Bede there who can give you 30.

Paul George is, we're going back and forth between him and OG has the best, like, three and D player in the league. And they are, they're dangerous right now. And they are, they are scary, especially when you have your top two guys playing this way. That's enough, that's enough objective analysis. Beasol, put the camera on you. Yes. What the hell did the Celtics do from here? You had a team that everybody doubted.

They overcame that. We all believed that they overcame that and that it was real and they'd be great. Turns out the initial beliefs and the Ross and weaknesses were real and they were a regular season team. merchant that couldn't translate to the playoffs. Jason Tatum came back early from the Achilles for nothing. Jaylen Brown had the best season of his career. He said it was his favorite season of his career. You got the most

out of Jaylon Brown possible. Turns out it was for nothing. Derek White can't make any shots anymore. Not getting any younger. Where do you go from here? Oh man. I hate it when teams make drastic changes and then we look back and we're like, yo, you didn't make that drastic of a change. I feel like there's a perfect

reality where we just trade Derek Wayne, that's all we need to do. But I'm not going to lie. Joe or Jalen Brown, we got to make a decision, dog. I ain't going to lie. It is getting to that point. Word. Joe or Jalen Brown?

A drastic change needs to happen. I agree. I feel like we are in this era where a lot of teams have, like, shorter leashes on them in terms of their timeline. And the reality is, Tatum and Brown have been together since 2017. Joe Mazula has been the coach of this team for four years now. Going on four years, five years, whatever it is. Other teams make changes when stuff like this happens.

We are seeing repeated changes, repeated mistakes over and over and over again. Something got a shake. And I feel like this is just the course of dying championship windows low-key. I'm seeing a lot of similarities between our timeline and the $21 and even the Denver Nuggets and how we talk about them, you know, maybe trading Jalen Brown is our trading Drew Holiday for the bucks. I disagree so much.

That's crazy. Listen, man. I don't think firing Joe Missoula is actually a thing they should do. I think I understand that we can recognize that he failed disastrously in this playoff series. He is still one of the best coaches in the league, whether or not it translates to the playoffs this year. He did still make the most ever roster

that shouldn't have even been in this position to begin with. So I'm not on the side of firing him. This yonness for Jalen Brown swap is when it hit so good. Uh, man. It's gonna be crazy. You on it? You on the train? I don't know if it should happen.

I mean, like, we can't, we have to remember, like, you guys are literally a team that purposely, like, poach your own roster so you can be under the second apron. So you can't have more flexibility. And you got, this is the worst roster that someone like Jalen, Jalen Brown and Tatum have had around them since, like, they were probably rookies, you know? And now we're seeing them pull this team so far. and have a coach like Joe Mazzulu who's doing all type of wizardry in the regular season to get the most out of these guys. And I think you're just at a point

to where you need to simply reload. I don't know if you need to do anything crazy like trade Jalen Brown. The only thing that would make me want to do that is if Jalen walked up to me personally was like, yeah, like I want out of here. Or some team just wants to get skinned. Sure.

You know how you reload? You sell high on guys. I think they're bigger in the program like a Jalen Brown. You ship him out for a Yonis. That's a reload to me. I'm not doing that. Is that 31 year old? I'm not going to rule it.

I'm joking about that. But I do think that they should consider. Like, if there is an ability to sell high on a Jalen Brown and, like, get another star and reconfigured to look, like, you guys know who I feel about Jalen Brown. I've always felt on the overrated nature of his game. Like, I don't think it would be crazy to recognize this as a window to do exactly what B. Be Solesead and Restructure the look and feel of your team.

I don't think Jailen Brown, the idea of moving him should be some stupid thought that if you say that you're some idiot that doesn't understand the Celtics. I don't know if they need to be like thirsting to do it. They don't need to do it. But if there is an opportunity on the table, like, I don't think if they did that and traded for Janus for Jalen Brown, like straight up. I would not think that's crazy. Yeah. So I think out of the two, for what you're describing and what I have seen from a majority of Celtics fans, I think to appease that feeling, firing Joe would be the move.

Because what it sounds like is, hey, I just can't live like this anymore. Right. Like, we just, we just can't keep going out on missed three point after mystery point after missed three point. which obviously is something that is probably going to be in the fabric of the offense. Now, if you want to say what's like what's the chicken or the egg, is it the players that are putting the team in that situation or is this truly like Missoula ball, you can figure that out. But I think to appease that, the coaches is probably the way to go.

I think you guys honestly are fine. I do think that it is just like, hey, let's get another big in here. Let's see if Brad Stevens can work his magic again and not completely miss on a, on assignments for vooch. If you had Simons in that in that series, even if Tatum goes down, you probably, you probably do win game seven, right?

You have some more shooting. And that's just something that wasn't, that wasn't there. Now, for me, I would say, Jaylon Brown, you are on the training block because what the hell

was that stream? Why did you say all that? Because, because, oh, you might be my bad, finish that? Yes, because what the hell was that stream?

I think at this point, NBA league-wide, I think it is, It should be commonplace in the same way that they say you can't skydive, you can't ride motorcycles. You cannot host a stream. If you are a streamer, we are not drafting you. If that is something that you have ambitions of doing, you cannot be on my roster. Because what he did was some of the most loser, shameless stuff that I've seen in a wild.

That was ridiculous. To go directors cut, play by play, oh, we should have got this call. Joel and Beat is flopping. Brother, you had a wide open three at the top of the key to put your team up. You had every single opportunity. And every single time that he has had a chance to take a slight sneak this at Tatum or to put himself as the one option on this team, he has taken it every single time this year. And Tatum has done nothing but to stay quiet and rehab from his Achilles, come back, play 40 minutes, do all the stuff.

And it's games. heaven. It's, it's, it's, it's, we're less than 24 hours away from the loss and you're going on stream. I do not want to see that at all. I think that was that was some of the worst stuff that I've seen all year from the subject. And you know who I blame? Every single one of you. Yeah. That let jalen brown get that shit off about shay because you guys also hate shay when he was talking about shay flopping. You put the battery in his back to think to let jaylon brown think that when he goes on camera and he talks about so-and-so flopping that I play the game the right way they flop that we would love it because you guys love to see him slander she. Now we

thinks he can do it to everybody. He can go to Joelle and Bede after Joel Embedde sonned him in a playoff series and made Jalen Brown himself start flopping midgame. There was one play where Jalen Brown threw his body across the court and then the announcers were like, oh, Joe L and Bede has to watch that arm. He's throwing Jalen Brown around. Jalen Brown flop like shit. Because he trying to play the game too, because obviously Juelan B gets his calls. Jalen Brown acting like he's above that like he didn't try to do the same thing is crazy. And the fact that he is some popular approach that he turns on the mic and people will love it. Disgusting. I hate everything about this.

I'm be honest before you go, Mo. I watched the stream because I don't want to be a clip merchant. I want to get the full context of things. Yes. I watched the stream and I'm just like, where is the accountability? Like that ass. Like the whole stream was, oh, the refs got an agenda against me. Oh, you know, we didn't have Tatum in game seven.

Oh, you know, I wish we played like the way we did in the first three games sooner. where was accountability on your front? How about your offensive fouls? Oh, wait, it's just the agenda. It's just the refs agenda. That's the nastiest part. It's just a turnover. Because you forget, for years, you've told you,

other than Brown, you're the smartest player in the NBA. You should go teach college classes. He can't do wrong. He's a genius. All he does is right, and all he does is elevated and eloquent, and he's a genius. Why would he ever have accountability? Yeah, I don't know.

Even the past Decatur that everyone's been talking about, always wide open. He passes it to Payton Pritchard. You can truly make argument that's the right play. But again, there's just no accountability. Like, you also are a part of this pie as to why the season failed. 100%. Just pure fact.

You were inefficient in a lot of the last couple of games. Pure fact. Just say, you were a part of the problem and we can move on. Yeah. Yo, the Celtors is too big of an organization to sit down and let him yap his ass off to not just, like, pull the cord. I'm sure they got some crazy ass. technology to just shut down the entire power to the fucking building, bro.

Because that's what you have to do. He's literally like, when you hear things like, yeah, this is my favorite season of my career, I could, I could somewhat understand that with context of apply, considering, like, everyone thought they were going to be like a 41 team and they rose above all and they beat all odds and shit like that. That sounds cool. But then, like, when you read through the lines and going back to what you all said, like, he's not taking any real, like, responsibility for all the, some of the misspass.

A lot of the mispasses other than that. that play, which I think that was fair game that that wide open corners corner three to Payton Pritchard fair play. But there's so many other instances throughout this entire series where, you know, Jalen Brown just has like ball glued to his hands and he just doesn't have the fastest processing speed to get certain to get certain passes off. There's so many things. And hearing that, going back to the singular comment, which he made about this being his

favorite year, I understand that, but also hearing how he's like not really taking accountability and pointing fingers towards all other things. Out of everything he said, the most damning part was him talking about how the rest have an agenda against me. That's why I'm like, okay, maybe I should rip the bandit off and try to scam someone and see how much value I could extract. I like that you said all that because that was a very charitable approach to Jalen Brown's comments. And I'm glad somebody up here has a charitable approach to Jalen Brown today because it will not be fucking me. You said, I'll give him benefit for the doubt and say that it's his favorite season because the team overachieve so much and he enjoyed this group and how much they proved everybody wrong.

Motherfucker, he enjoyed this season because he had people on TV saying he's an MVP candidate because he had people on Twitter saying he's a top five player and he's better than Luca and all this other bullshit. He enjoyed the main character syndrome clearly. It's clear as day. Reading the tea leaves. This idea that like the world is against him just kills me. You got a finals MVP that you arguably didn't even deserve.

You got you got, you're getting MVP votes that you arguably didn't deserve. Yeah. And that's the, that's the, that's the worst part about about this stream. about the way that he's going out is that the way that he's acted this year with some of, of like the more like traditional media push that he's getting, you don't have to do any of this. Like there is a certain level. You did level up.

We did think that the Celtics were going to be mid at best. You average basically 30 this year. You played extremely well. This team over, overachieved. There's a lot of things that he had going for him in, in his corner this year. But every time that he had an opportunity to say something or, to keep things moving forward for the future of the team or what the Celtics could potentially accomplish whenever Tatum came back, it always seems like he kept it at arm's length

for the benefit of himself and for that. And that's the unfortunate part about the about these streams and about saying that the reps are against me and they have this agenda. It's a, it's a problem. And so I do think that if you're the Celtics, you know, no cameras, nothing, you, you, You ask Jason Tatum, I mean, Jalenbrien, you ask them, do you want to be traded? Like, do you want to have your own team? If so, we can make that happen.

But we just have to know, because we can't go through another year of this. I agree. And to wrap up the convo, long story short, I don't think they need to do anything. I agree with you that. They stamp out and they get better on the margins and they run this vision back, maybe try to get a guard that can create a paint touch so that way we can do Joe Mosulah system. But when you get a Joel and B type of end protector, it doesn't completely fall apart. You can have somebody that can still reliably keep the offense flowing.

That's enough. they can do that. I can come back next year and I'll say oh they should probably once again be favorites to win the East they don't have a disastrous season and they're a little bit better Jason Tatum is a little more healthy I will once again feel as confident as I felt in them last year. Young players that we mentioned get a little bit better too. There's plenty of ways

to stick to the plan and be just as good next season. There's a lot more to basketball than what's on the paper though and for all these reasons it's not crazy to me whatsoever if they explore more dramatic options. I will say though Visos I am noticing something. I do remember Zanlon Brown being like oh yeah we've been to have zero pull up to the stream zero's come to the stream never happened never happened i'm noticing the noticeer right god forbid jason tim does that shit i cannot imagine

not a lot of stars would do that and thank god it's not a star on my team it would drive me insane he'd be going on other people's platforms though he uh he went on derrick white's podcast and people people made a fuss about it oh so he can go on derrick white's podcast but not jalen brown's stream what's going on in boston yeah yeah yeah We were talking about Zagreb chat. Remember when all the NBA players want to be rappers?

Now they all want to be kick streamers. What a different era we're in. Now they all want to be neon. That's crazy. That's fucking crazy. The world is truly a different media ecosystem right now. And your guys at the head of it.

KD wanted to be Drake. Jaylon Brown wants to be Aiden Ross. Good Lord. You want to be PDM. Good Lord. That's tough. All right, that's enough of your misery. Yeah.

Thank God. Feels like it happened so long ago. Yeah. You got belted. Again, feels like it happened so long ago, bro. You got, hello. You got used and abused. I'm not going to lie, bro, that night that it was happening, like, I was literally spiraling.

I was doing shit that I never did before in my life, bro. I came home to, I came home to, like, want to, like, cool down and chill out. And my girls from New York, y'all know, was just like laughing in my face the entire fucking night. I was DMing people throwing to beat their ass right. I was on my time my same saying like all types of shit. I followed my time. I said, who in Chicago? Who in one way to live in my life tonight?

It was so bad. Bro, it was one point in time we were, score was like, I seen the craziest scores I've never seen before my life, bro. It was historic shit. I think that was like the craziest halftime leave. in like literal NBA history so I did make history to B souls my fault I have like no idea where to start but I feel okay I feel better also too I don't think you were there this motherfucker took me out I was like he choked me out yeah pulled the video go to my Twitter towards the toward the end of the video he talked me out he did choke you out and I really

considered I love you I almost considered calling the cops on you for that and showing that as fucking evidence bro it was payback though you choked him out whenever Trey young got traded but it was get back. Yeah, but that's different though. No, no, no. He was laughing at my life. Okay? He was laughing at me. It's different. I didn't not incite you at all. He just went ahead and like took me from behind too. I did it face to face. He came from behind and snub me. This does look crazy. I didn't even see him. I was just chilling. Just like living in my sorrow, man. And he just came up fucking strangles of me, bro. But you were smiling though. You were smiling though. Oh, you like it a little bit. It was a little bit. You like it a little bit.

Yes, as you guys know, the Hawks got fucking blasted by 100 million points by the Nix. We all react to Twitter. Go on my Twitter. Go on the D3 Twitter. You'll see the videos and then watching it live. Cinema. For a minute one, it was a meltdown. We don't got to talk about basketball too much.

A lot of time has passed. We'll talk about the Nix and next series. What are your closing thoughts on your Hawks season and your Hawks fandom going to next year? And just how bad your life is as an NBA fan. Man, I don't even know where to start. I don't even think this is like a belt. This is like some world old school shit. This is like a centimeter stick.

You know? Like it just really, really hard wood. Just whop, wow, wow, and this just sent the entire team spiraling. But, you know,

lotteries next week, I want to new, bigger and better things. That's all I got to say. We tried out a franchise player. I don't really give a damn about this season. Even making the playoffs was like, cool.

We stole two games by like one point, which is hilarious. But it's a girl. We're growing. We're grown. We're going. We'll catch up. We'll catch up.

Doubt it. Other game sevens, actually, we'll talk about the game sevens when we talk about those teams in their series. Actually, no, no, let's talk about this one first. Okay. Magic versus Pistons. We've got to talk about this one at least. Magic blow through one lead.

Pistons, they were down through one. We said, wow. They showed exactly what we feared, why we doubted them as a contender. Why we said that, while they're a very good team, we'll rank them five or six in our power rankings. We don't think they can win a championship this year because the creation and the offensive players around Kate Cunningham weren't good enough.

I'm on a team that's big and strong just like you walk through those doors. You don't have the firepower to beat them. You go down 3-1 against a team that we all appreciate it and said good job and showing out in the playoffs. But we don't think the magic are good. It's a good matchup for them and they're performing as well as they can. Salute to them. We don't think this is the serious playoff team. You're down 3-1.

And then to every person in Detroit, every Pistons fan out there, a shooting star came across the sky. Magic dropping through their laps. Franz Wagner got injured and everything changed. And all of a sudden, they have control of the series. They blow it. Because without Franz Wagner and without the duo of Franz and Paolo being such a size mismatch, the magic just had no hope of scoring in these games.

They blew it through one lead, headlined by a game six in which they missed. Like, was it 27 straight misses? 23. 23 straight misses. Franz Wagner would have helped a lot there. Palo had a disastrous game. After in game five, he had a great game with 45 points. Game six, he had another good game.

his shots are going in. Wasn't enough because without Franz Wagner next to him, even when Palo Baner was making his shots, they're not helping off the people around him. They're saying, Pallel, you've got to beat us one-on-one as a score because we don't think your style of play. We don't think your playmaking is enough with this roster around you. And they were right to Pistons Advance.

How do we feel? I feel like Cade is knocking. He's knocking on the door because at that same time, Kate also leveled up in the last three games. And they needed him to score every bucket that he did. and he went through. And he said, you know what? Jalen Dernan, he's not coming with me.

It is what it is. It is what it is. I'm going to have to see him next series. I got to do this on my own. Last three games, Kay Cunningham, 45 points in game 5, 32 and 32 in game 6 in game 7. Hooping. Shot 5 of 8 from 3 in game 5, 2 of 4, then 4 of 6 in game 7. His 3 was falling, the jumper was falling.

he was ultra aggressive he put the team on his back you had that happen you had assar thompson out here looking look like regular season he was like dennis robin he was so destructive defensively he was he was fantastic and listen man the magic you just didn't have enough you just lost franz so that makes the offense be just not good enough and defensively franz was by far your best kate cunningham defender kate average at like 26 in those first few games with franz there still perform well up and down Franz had a very good job defending him. It's not, I don't want to simplify it for Pistons fans. Act like they didn't come out and like deserve that win.

Everything you said, Assar went crazy. Tobias Harris game of his life in Game 7. Really serious of his life. Tobias played very well. Cape is very good. Series their life, they earned that 3-1 lead. If I'm a magic fan, it really does boil down to Franz being essential on offense and defense and missing him.

Yeah. They have no chance. So funny is 40 minutes ago, they fired Joe, Jamal Milsie. which is absolutely fucking hilarious. And they weren't played about that no matter what happens. He's gone. And I guess it's like the most

like respectable way to go out. If you're Jamal Mosey, you took your team to seven games. No, it's kind of worse. It's kind of worse. We were going to fire you initially. And then you were on the way to saving your job and you had a three one lead and you blew that.

And so this is really further confirmation that you should have been fired. Yeah. They have so many. They have so many things to go ahead and change. bro. Yesterday, Jalen Slugs, he went ahead and shot 22% from the field. That's absolutely disgusting.

But guess what? That is higher than what he shot previous to the last three games. We shot 18% from the fucking field. His series averages what up? Brother, he shot 29% from the field this entire series. He's a problem. He's someone who I think, like a couple years ago, like I'm a fan of his still. and a couple years ago, I feel like he was like a real like difference maker and X Factor

where this team is going to go. And I still think he's a very impactful player, but he just cannot with the deficiencies of the stars of this team and really like the whole entire roster. He like really amplifies everything that's wrong with this team when his shot is not going. I saw a tweet that someone said you put a dog's brain inside of Jalen Sugg's body and start moving. It'll start to move. They got them.

That's hilarious. Bro, when your true shooting is a bad field goal percentage. It's bad, bro. And this season two for Palo the series was like the most extreme example of the Palovin Caro experience. Came out, started amazing. Second playing game, first playoff game of this series. Lit it up. The process was great.

Got to the rim with Franz there. They had enough to be able to put attention to Puylo and not have to be too much. That he played fantastic. And we said, okay, I guess he is a playoff riser. He's doing it again. This is crazy. A couple bad games happen. All right.

This is going to happen. It's playoffs. Palo is inconsistent. Amazing game happens. Scores 45. Shoot six for 10 from three. Wow. Dominant Palo Bancaro performance.

Game six happens. One of the worst games I've ever seen than game seven. He comes out and makes shots again. You know how you define the Palo Bancaro experience? Good bad. Good bad. Good bad. Good bad.

Whether it be month by month, week by week, season by season, game by game. Good bad. Good bad. We got that in every single way imaginable. In some ways, it was good bad, good bad, perhaps. in game seven. The most appealing of streaky player happened in every single facet of measurements.

Listen, I honestly, I still just can't believe. They scored 79 points in game in game six. Like, Franz there or not, you're up 24 at 2, 24 at halftime. You lose by 14. That's so crazy.

And the other team doesn't score 95 points. That was agreed. That is something that that cannot happen. That's horrible. That picture's hilarious. A towel over someone's head with a bad status of hysterical image. Yeah, truly. So like, I think for, yeah, for the magic, they're also stuck because you just traded

four first round picks for, for Desmond Bain. You really need this core of Bain, Palo, and Franz to work. And what they're going to do this offseason is obviously get a new coach in there, tell themselves. Franz was hurt. Palo was inconsistent all year. We're finally going to get an offseason where we can get everybody together on the same plan and next year is going to be the year. I kind of do believe in it because there were times throughout this series where I saw the vision and you just, you look at the team and it's like, you guys just need a little bit more offensive creativity. But I think for them, their path forward is very, very singular and it's

very linear. I don't think they can be super creative and have like eight hours. options on the whiteboard. You probably only have two. Yeah, it's unfortunate. They might have to trade Suggs just by nature of like there's not many other ways to improve. I guess you could try to upgrade the one of a Carter spot with another spacer or something with like your slew of young players, try to give somebody like an Anthony Black, Tristan de Silva types. I guess if that's enough, but if you want to bring in like a real difference maker, whether it be a skilled five that can provide spacing, a different type of guard that's a little bit more of a consistent creator, I don't know what they feel they need. If they do feel like they need something, Suggs is probably

be their best avenue, even though the stuff he brings is so valuable. I wouldn't be like excited to trade him and sell low. But I don't know what other options they have. Yeah, you're right. I mean, they're like literally committed to Powell Bencaro and his contract starts kicking in next year. They're already paying Franz. In two months, really.

Yeah, literally two months for real. They're already committed to Franz too. Like this is their core. And sadly, like I would want to get rid of Suggs. I think Suggs in the future could we could look up one day and he could be like a very integral and important part to a championship level team and almost. similar lights to how like Derek White is or someone like Aaron Gordon, some do-it-all-s, this army guy who's defensive faced and forded.

But, like, he just has to go because he just simply doesn't fit perfectly with Paulo and Franz. Now you want to wait and play because this team hasn't had much of an opportunity to be healthy together for a full regular season. I get that. But I think time is crucial right now for the timeline that they're on. Yeah, they can do nothing. They could do something small.

I don't know for sure. a new coach will make a huge difference. And again, hopefully next year is the year, that Palo Ban Kiara becomes a superstar. I didn't know who to look forward this game seven. For a narrative's sake, I was so conflicted. Yeah. Let's transition now to our preview of the second round.

And let's start with Pistons versus Cavaliers as our second round series because I'm glad that Pistons won the series. You picked them to win. I want to see them advance. I want to see Katie Cunningham and more and more series kind of grow into the superstar role. and they came back from down 3-1 and like you mentioned in the beginning

much credit is due to them for doing that much credit is due to Kay Cunningham for rising to the occasion and performing as an elite score in a series where they take away your playmaking and don't help off of people and give you those interior passing opportunities they say you've got to unload the clip

he unloaded it. They say S.R. Thompson, you're going to better provide hell of defensive value because the offense isn't going to be there. He did that. I do still feel worried about what we saw when they went down 3-1 and I do worry that we're going to see that

in every single series and they're always going to have to overcome such immense offensive holes that I'm kind of scared a little bit still. I can understand them being nervous or playing the calves. Also nervous about the calves. Also nervous about them. You went to seven games with the team that didn't have Emmanuel quickly, didn't have Brandon Ingram for the last couple games. You were you were tied at halftime of game seven with this team. You are deeply unsurious.

And I think that Detroit is just as, if that more physical than Toronto. They have more offensive talent than them. I think there's a world where during might have, well, actually, we'll see, because that's a tough, that's a tough thing to now have to go from Wendell Carter to like, Twin Towers down there. Yeah, now we got Jared Allen and every mobile. That's tough. And Jared Allen, like, discovered physicality in game seven, by the way.

He became shack down there, dominating. CMB and all these guys. Previous games, he was out there letting himself get boxed out by six, seven guys. All of a sudden, he realized he's large. Bro, RJ Barry bumped into him and he was like, all right, man. Chill out, chill out, little dude. Yeah. I was like, why is Jared Allen feeling like this?

This is different. He looked like AD for some moments in that game. Yeah. But I think, I think like Detroit, I really, I don't trust Cleveland. And so everything in my heart really wants to say Detroit in five. Five. Okay. However.

It's tough. I can't do it because that offense is disgusting. Yeah. So I don't know how to feel. I'll find my opinion as we all discuss it because I agree. The Cavaliers showed a huge amount of uns seriousness and boiling things down to like they didn't want a bad enough isn't typically like a smart way to talk about playoff basketball. They went to game seven with the fucking Raptors.

Salute to the Raptors. The Cavs didn't want it bad enough at times. They weren't serious. Donovan Mitchell had a hard time with those switching lengthy defenders for everything we talked about the last episode that when he said, when he's not playing against drop coverages, being able to abuse him with his off the dribble threes, things get really difficult at a time for Donovan Mitchell to find consistency. The shots are not consistently high quality. So a team that can switch everything and give you a talented defender on both sides of the switch, going to be a hard matchup for Donovan. There might be a little

more holes for him to poke at against this team that has Duncan Robinson on the court at all times. Jalen Duran is a slow foot at center. Maybe he can get some good looks off there. But there's also Asar Thompson. I don't know if they're going to play Ron Holland if he's going to be there. I don't know how many elite defenders are going to put out there to meet their offense good enough. But there's no shortage of great defenders to give down to mental trouble. Yeah. I don't know how to feel when I don't trust one team's offense and the other team had to have second half comebacks in every game because it came out so flat against physicality and now you're

facing more physicality. Yeah. It's crazy. This series is going to be so entertaining and the narratives that we're getting off of this is going to be fantastic. But I almost want to like lean towards the calves simply because I think offensive. defensively, they're decent, they're all right or whatever, but offensively, I think what will move me is the playmaking of James Hardin and whatever Donald of the Michigan

gave you and how, like, they just, Cleveland just has, like, so many shooters that you have to answer for and you have to cover. And that spacing is so hard and they have so many different looks to try to generate decent offense, whether it be through Demich, whether it be through James Hardin or even like Dennis Schroeder, who literally saved their season, a couple of, a couple of, a couple blood nights ago. And I think Evan Moby will probably be an issue in his physicality. Going back to certain things aren't like the smartest ways when it comes to talk about basketball. Bro, sometimes basketball is just so simple. And like the hoop heads are right.

Like, yo, Evan Moby, how physical are you going to be? How are you going to like deal with being put out of position every single, every other play when it comes to, guys like Jaron Duren like putting his fucking elbow into your guts? What's going to happen, you know? And I want to lean towards the calves, but I don't know how legit that is because Evan Moby kind of scares me. He's the ultimate factor for me. Who defends Kate? What's your look defending Kate and your starting lineup? Dean Wade? You start in Dean Wade? Max Drews.

Now that you put it that way. You probably start with Wade just so you can get the length. So on Kate. Sure. So Kate can attack. They can run guard-to-guard switches and have Kade do what he just did against the magic and be a very consistent half-core ISO score. You can attack Donovan Mitchell. you can tag whatever small wing you put out there, Dean Wade, Struce, Merrill. James Hardin is a solid one-on-one defender in those situations,

but it's not like he's locked down. We just saw him do better against better defenders than James Hardin. Lots of holes for Cade to poke at, and we know their offense is going to devolve into Cade poking at holes. And it won't be like efficient offense, but when you pair with how good the Pistons' defenses, it could be enough. We just saw that. There's a lot of holes in a poke at.

On the other side, you mentioned Evan Mowgli and his aggression or lack there of, he just had a very good series. 18 points on 65% true shooting did a very good job navigating the lack of spacing and using his length and his angles and wide-ass strides

to create rim opportunities against smaller defenders. Tobias Harris gonna be stopping that on a consistent basis when starting lineups are out there? Probably not. I'm also nerd.

Assar Thompson is giving fits, bro. Then if a Tsar Thompson's given F. Moby fits, who's given K. Cunningham fits? I mean, who I mean, my bad? Who's given James Hardin and Donald Mitchell fits?

It's got to be a Sart Thompson can't guard everybody. Oh, but you can, they have so many guys. He's going to try his best. They have so many guys, but then they can't put all the guys out there at the same time. Their offense isn't good enough. So they're going to have a lot of Duncan Robinson and Tobias Harris minutes. Who is defending those two guards on a consistent basis? Can you give Donovanial the same issues that the Raptors gave him? Because the Raptors didn't

give a fuck about offense because they weren't going to score a lot anyways. They put out straight demons defensively instead working out to muddy this down. I don't think the pistons can do that. I look he think, I think they can start there. I think. And what's it looked like? What's starting a lineup are you imagining then? like benching Duncan Robinson no so I'm

so it would be it would be Cade Duncan actually they don't change the lineup but you're saying they do a lot more defensive

to lineups early yeah yeah yeah the side the side lineup would be fine because I do think like if they can if they can come out

and get their get their regular game off and really let their defense carry them it's fine I think in my mind I think the Pistons win the series

a majority of the time if we we run it like 10 times 100 times whatever uh i just i'm really yo you you at seven like it really is very very shocking and very scary that that you weren't able to to handle business as well as as you did and i i think they went i just don't know the the margin yet yeah and i don't know if it's five or seven because also like we got we got the james hardin experience where the first five games were good it was solid and then game six and seven five for 14 in game six, three for nine in game seven, like one for four from three in game six,

one for five from three in game seven. That's why if it does go later, I feel better and better about the pistons. Oh, for sure. Right, because that game is going to, is going to happen. Do we expect that Jalen Dern bounce back? I know they have these Twin Towers, but Jalen Dern struggled because Wandaerter is just as strong as him. And that was an issue for Jailen Dern, whose finesse scoring wasn't ready in this series.

and he has to be able to be physical and finish through you and be bigger than you and have that just impact on you as a series of wanes on Jared Allen and Evan Mobley aren't the most stout guys compared to the Wendell Carter. They're better for sure and maybe that makes up for it and the skill of Evanmobiles defense

and the skill of Jared Adel and pro ends up making up for it and it's even harder than Wendell Carter but maybe that specific change in strength level lends to Jalen and Dern doing a little bit better. What makes a series so hard to talk about also too is that of course like they had their season series and it split at 2-2.

But this team or the cast specifically went through so many changes. And Hardin was there for both of those games. And also too, while he was there, like Donald Mitchell wasn't healthy. And also they played a game without Hardin as well, I believe. And even though like that was the case, the games, these games too were so like wildly goddamn close. The last time they faced each other was March 13th or March 3rd. And the score was 109 to 113. Caz ended up winning this, and this is a game without, without Donovan Mitchell.

And James Harden just shot like five for 17. And what really won them this game is the three-point battle. They hit like 17 to the fucking Detroit Pissons 9. But they kept this close regardless. So ultimately, like that matters, but also like, you know, kind of doesn't matter. I think another interesting part is Kate Cunningham was defending the hell out of Palo Bencaro. Yeah. Cade's like Shay, where his coach says, you're going to have to go out there and defend

and switch and be just as aggressive, we're not hiding you whatsoever, he's very good at that. You're going to have to do it a lot against his two talented guards. I mentioned the Sarkang guard everybody. That means Cade is going to have to be like a primary assignment on an All-Star Guard.

That's a lot of energy to ask for two straight playoff series. And if one just went seven, this one's probably can go along too. You're going to have to be the isolation score you just were unless Tobias Harris has more magical games which he gives you 25 plus.

I don't know if you rely on that. So I'm assuming Kate has to average over 30. And you're going to have to be asked a lot of you defensively to actively guard these two dynamic guards that's kind of the story the series to me is can he do that

for another long series and if he does that listen you're one of the best guards in the east right yeah you're one of the best players in the league that's what people have been saying

about Kade this entire year that's that's been one of the talking points around him and there are there are times where people just just elevate and just prove to you that they can do the thing

that nobody thinks is possible I think I think Kade can do it I think that there's going to be enough Donovan Mitchell slightly inefficient games and then you'll have your your heart in game seven or game six whatever that I think the safe pick right now is probably Pistons in six. Yeah. I think I'll go Pistons ultimately in Pistons and probably seven because, you know, like they, going back to the whole CAF's thing, like I'm thinking about it now.

like they don't have much of an answer perimeter perimeter wise for someone like aid and that i do think there might be a couple of games or tobias harris can get some shit off and give you smooth 17 18 points or whatever it might be and like this is the exact type of team where the prisons are foldable they can be like embarrassed they can be put in like i mean the chaos they can be embarrassed they can be put in a in a choke hold oh listen both of them both of them are are foldable like both of them can be put in a chokehold. I also think... They both like pretzels.

Yeah. The, also the defense for Detroit, and you saw it in this series, and then you even saw it for Toronto, like the best offense for those two teams who were just getting out and running and being able to get live ball turnovers and then convert off of that.

Detroit is much better at that. And Detroit is going to be able to do that. And I think that they're going to have those moments where you are going to be able to get in transition and you have one or two options to spray out to three where like Toronto that's not really a thing. So they can they can sum up enough offense I think. Yeah, I think I also lead Pistons and Seven right now I lean that way.

But this is one of those series that I truthfully don't know. I need to see Game One before I have any type of feel for how this is going to go that like on paper it's so close. I got to see how the coaches go about the matchups. So tentatively Pistons and Seven. But if you come out and we see the Cavaliers show something really inspiring in Game One, I won't be shocked if I feel differently pretty immediately. Yeah.

But, yeah, this is going to be such a, such an interesting series of who's, who's going to win. Because even then, like, as my mind starts to, like, move forward of, like, the Knicks, like, who would I want the Knicks to play? Like, because I honestly, listen, I'm, I'm scared to Detroit, man. Like, they're mean. They're mean, man. They hurt people. I feel good about the Pistons having enough to beat the Cavs because I do. don't think highly the calves are now.

When we get to the next round and it's either the Knicks or a well-balanced two-way team or if the Sixers upset them because Healthy Joelle and Beat is playing well, then I have real concerns about the Pistons' ability to beat those type of teams. But the Cavs are just frail enough, but I have faith in the Pistons. Speaking of that, let's go to the other series in the East, close out the Eastern Conference Preview. Nix versus 76ers. How do we feel?

No numbers. Put the laptop. Because I don't care about none of that right now. I don't care about. any of it. You know what this is. There's an evil man out there in Philadelphia that's running the streets. Jalen Brunson, Carlinthe Towns, you take that man down. By yourself. You do it. Don't call the police. You take this into your own hand. Vigilante shit. Yep. So obviously the Knicks, I think on paper have been the better team. Yes, he is. Yes, he is evil. The Knicks are a well-rounded

team that have, I think, better depth than the 76ers. Yes. Their defense has been clicking. They're getting a good defensive showing out of Chronothie Towns, and especially Mitchell Robinson, the look they're giving. Their wings are playing well. Jim and Brunson closed up the series very well against the Hawks. And they're playing, I think, right now, peak Nick's basketball.

Not a whole lot of flaws to point to but how versatile their offenses and how versatile their defense is in ways too right now. 76 is another hand. Hard to really pin down because the Joelle and B factor is so unknown. With the way Juelan B was playing, if he plays for a healthy seven games

in this series and is the best version we just saw for him in Game 7 and the rest of the series he played, right? that makes it so these teams are almost even to me don't know if I could rely on willing me to play all these games. So how do we go about even talking about this? Yeah, I don't I don't think he's going to play all these games.

I'm honestly waiting on the notification for tonight for game one because he had two there were two moments in like the in the second half of game seven where his knee got bumped into and it looked to be like slightly hyper-extended. It's one day. There was one day every single, every other day this is. And so I,

like if he plays tonight, cool, but I'm not expecting. Okay, so I think we should start there. If Joel Mee doesn't play and he misses good amounts of games and if we get that annoying tweet that he's out for the last four games or whatever, then I think we're obviously going to lead the Knicks. There's no reason for us to believe in the six years without impede.

Let's say he's there for now. Let's just treat it that way mentally. What scares you most about the 70-6 years? What advantages they have that you feel like could lead to an upset? Obviously, the stuff that we talked about earlier and the stuff they kill Boston. Tyrese maxi's speed is different. And like, even the, even the, the defenders that you have for, for the Knicks, it's not the, it's not the, it's not the,

the exact type of defender that you would love to throw on a Tyrease Maxie. Like, OG is very, very physical. As an OG to basically slide his feet and, and, you know, get on. Yeah, get on his high horse. That's tough. McKell Bridges is the same, the same thing. Like, Josh Hart, the, like, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's to be very, very tough. So I think that's happening. The physicality of Embed, once you start getting, also get ready. We're going, going ban for ban, foul baiting with Embed in this series. But once you do get that, you know Kat is prone to that.

I'm nervous that the foul trouble gets to a point where the big rotation really, really gets spread thing. Real quick, on the Embeddie foul-bating thing, he does foulbates. So obviously, there's one shot specifically in his last game. He, like, threw his body out, did his little leg-shay thing. Yeah. He does still foul bait. People think every time he falls, he's foulbating.

He falls to save his knees. And you can tell that he doesn't want to put too much shocks. He just falls all the time. And everybody takes it as foulbating. Like he falbates 100 times a game. He's just scared to springing his knee on like every play. That is true. I was people.

Yeah. You're playing against him. I don't expect you to have a charitable idea of what Jolelin Bede is doing. But I do think a lot of those are him just trying out to get hurt. Yeah. Wemby does the same thing. When you're seven feet tall, 200 whatever pounds,

like you can't fall on your knees that amount of time. Yeah, falling is better for you. Yeah. So I would say, I would say those two things. And listen, Paul George and the way that he's been playing and adding a third guy in there

that can get you 20 points that can go on the other side and give and move with OG, move with with Brunson on the perimeter. those three things are the ones that I'm looking at and saying like, okay, if we can contain one of these three, I will feel much better about the series if everybody's healthy all the time.

Okay, fair. Now, you laid out the six years idea of them what makes them so strong we know very well. Mo. Somebody who just got the cat back shots for several games in a row. How do you feel about the Knicks and the way they're playing after you saw it firsthand root against it and you saw them abuse a small back court

and a small front court that couldn't hang with a cat? Now we got the biggest back court. We got Joelle and Bede there. But not a lot of signs next to Joelle and Bede. Do you feel good of what you've seen from Kat and really the rest of the Nix's offense to be able to succeed and, like, win decisively? Man, I feel, I still feel good about the Nix potentially winning this series because of Joe L'O&B questions are so wild. And with the type of shit that the Knicks are doing in the first round and how, like, physical they were and how, like, the referees let them do pretty much set them, set whatever screens and all that shit that they want to do. Don't look at me like no, Cat does.

You know, you know what's like that's. You have to be honest. It was a reason, but that's fine. It's not basketball. So I get it. No, no, not like in beat is different. It's different. It's different.

It's different. A score that leverages and stuff. We all know what that is in the modern NBA. Kat is on Draymond timing that every time it is a handoff, sticks his ass out, moves his feet, no pivot foot. Every single handoff he does is a moving screen and a travel. That's the same thing. Same thing with Josh Hard and all that too. Like, I get it.

Tyree's Max would be carrying. That would. That would. But I do think that matchup right there is one of my favorite things rolling into the second round. And for the Knicks, bro, the main advantage that they have against the 76ers is this is a simple conversation about depth. And as long as Jose Alvarano can come in and give them decent minutes, who I think would be an interesting defender on Tyrese maxi. Obviously, like Tyrese would win that match up nine times out of ten. But still, like, that would be an interesting wrinkle.

Same thing with Deuce McBride. And I think those guys like that will make a true difference. And the bench overall might sway me because, yo, Philly's bench is fucking disgusting right now. Outside of Quinn Grimes, if he's off, if he can't give you like the normal, what, seven or eight points that he's averaging and also if Drummond can't give you like too much too, which he's bound to, bound for inconsistency, like, the series can be over in like fucking six, six, potentially.

You mentioned one last game. I thought you were going to say four or five. I was going to say five, but I was like, I got to put respect on Tyree's maxi. Okay. But it could be over in six. Sure. But I mean, I think you same two important players in this series that will give them a lot. I think both these teams can be gotten transition.

Quinn Grimes gives you transition scoring and some of the few things as well. So I think it can be a decent Quinn Grimes series. I think it's an essential German series to hang with Mitchell Robinson in those bench minutes. You would be the one guy that has some girth to him that won't get dominated on the boards of Mitchell Robinson. So, yeah, you mentioned those two bench guys. Those two guys are hugely important to me. And I feel decent about their chances of having good impact. I think this is going seven.

And I think it kind of just boils down to whose stars are going to perform better in these late games. Because I think these games are going to be immensely close every single time. I think this is a boil down to which guard is better,

which big man wins the old B from 2019? Can Joelle and Bede be too physical and good at the rim for cat? Can Juelan B's limited mobility lead to a cat getting him a lot on these pick and pops and attacking off the dribble? We'll see there.

I think the both will get their games off. I trust Tyreys Maxi a lot with those paint touches. McHill Bridges is not good at defending quick guards in small spaces. I do not see how they stop Tyris Maxi in any meaningful way I'm gonna be honest that's what I'm excited for in the second round

someone is gonna shit the bed in the Eastern Conference in both of those series I'm excited to find out who's gonna join us in Cancun I think we've seen a lot of obviously we've seen a lot of series where the Joella beat stuff when he's not 100% healthy leads to some belt downs in the second halfs I'm hoping that we're not seeing that now because Tyris Maxi has risen Paul George is playing very well

the Knicks man they play all these series where they're bound to play long series because they fuck up in the fourth quarter and below games they shouldn't blow. It's just in their goddamn DNA. I don't know what it is. Maybe it's just the nature of having a guard that is an amazing playmaker to keep the offensive flow at times and a big man who's undisciplined at defense. So like crazy shit just happens to them all the time.

Sounds like we're going to have a long series when both teams are so dramatic in their strengths and weaknesses relative to each other. Who do you trust more in a game seven? Yeah, I mean, I chose Brunson. I think this is going to be a much better series for Brunson as a lot of. as well than then then last series against the Hawks in terms of like his matchups in terms of just his scoring like I think he'll have a much better time yeah getting getting his because he has to drop coverage which well and beat so he's gonna be mid range buckets for him

yeah so I think I think he'll be better this uh the series it's same for me same thing as as last series we should run them run them we should we should we should we should we should should run. Would you want to beat healthy? You should beat them in five? We should. I don't think they should. However.

I don't think they should. Obviously, we are who we are. Mixing six. Yeah. Okay. Like that's what is. We beat them in six games last year because once again, then I go back and forth. Like the six games probably should have been the six games because we stole game two and then we choked game five.

You can call those to watch whatever. But we were in in very, very good control of that series. I don't know if y'all remember. Julius Randall was not there for that run for that run. We were counting on Bollyon. Oh, you're saying two years ago? Yeah, two years ago on 24. We were counting on Bollyon-Bogdonovits to come in and give us really, really good minutes and good scoring.

And he broke his ankle halfway through the series. We were out there with our ninth and tenth man and precious to Chua was out here giving us crazy. Like, this team right now is so much further along. And when you see the amount of depth that this team has compared to what the sixers have and the fact that they are really a six-man rotation, six-and-a-half-man rotation, I think that they can be got. And I think that we should beat them. Now, I will say all weekend long,

I am kind of scared. Because the fact that Embedde came back from this appendicitis thing, went on the road, slayed one demon in Boston. We're having a lot of things. like Tobias Harris shot well in a game seven. A lot of weird things that happen in the world. And it feels like there's a possibility for Joelle and Beat in the Sixers to finally have their run, their shining moment.

And the Knicks have played a lot of long series over the last couple years. Sometimes things just catch up to you. There's that small possibility that's been telling me in the back of my mind like, you guys might get got this stuff. Yeah, I don't think it's like, I get why you're framing it that way. You're a Knicks fan, obviously. I understand it. I don't think it's some fairy tale if the Sixers come out and beat them.

Or if they goes to seven. And 100% is a fairy tale. If the Sixers come out. So it's a fair tale as far as Joel Naliby's never healthy. So if he stays healthy, it's a blessing. It's a blessing. Yeah. So Paul George got suspended.

Paul Jones, they have two of the worst contracts in the NBA right now. And for them to finally get a healthy Joelle and bead run or healthy and bead run to have Paul George have that suspension in the middle of the season, which Loki probably helped him save all of this way. wearing, tear on his legs, and now you're finally getting this core that you have not seen all year long

and you guys are peeking at the right time. It is a fairytale. Regardless of who you play. It's a fairy tale as far as it's unlikely these guys stay healthy and they are currently healthy, so it's like we're happy to see that. We couldn't rely on that.

But as far as like on the court how good this team is, they're just as good when healthy right now. Like it's not a fairy tale as far as like if the Knicks lose to this team, everybody's healthy. It's not a disaster. It won't be,

I mean, maybe they will choke. I'm not saying they're going to for sure lose in a respectful fashion. but the idea of them losing to the Sixers isn't crazy. This team is very good. We did our final power rankings. I was like, if I knew Juelan B was going to be healthy, I feel great about this team right now with the starting five.

This is a legit, fantastic starting five and everybody's healthy with the way Paul George's emerged, with how well they've done with Kelly Ubrey being this like dunker spot power forward guy that maybe doesn't have the size to be consistent on the rebounds, but offensively it works really well, which Juelembe playmaking,

drawing the double teams in this slow methodical fashion he does. We know the power of their athletic backcourt. They have serious advantages over the Knicks that again if I'm just assuming Joel and he's healthy which who's to say this will go seven and it's anybody serious to me yeah I think two things that also can't show me as well is seeing what someone like Vijay will be able to do against this against the the Knicks how often is gonna hit those wide open threes that swings and sway so much it covers up so many inconsistent joel and beat possessions but ultimately I think what also makes you kind of want to lean towards the nix

is old gen and nobody's just playing like at another level right now if he was playing like this in the first round throughout the entirety of the fucking regular season this motherfucker would be an all-star the amount of like strength and brute force that he plays with on both ends of the goddamn court and how we're just able to just like neutralize you and just like make you feel like you're 20 pounds lighter than you actually are throughout like any any opponent this is just who he is i feel like is such like a needle mover so it's that along side like, okay, when it comes to Karatee Towns, how effectively you're going to use him? How are you going to, like, deploy him?

Because it's been so wildly inconsistent for basically the entire entirety regular season, even up until now, which is why they like fumble two games against the Hawks. That's so like pivotal and important to me. And I feel like they'll figure it out later than they should. Also, Katz defense has been good. Yeah. Like, he has stepped up on that side of the. ball. So I am I am very

curious to see how that holds up against Embedinstein. And can you get... And Maxey specifically. Yeah. Because obviously I'm not expecting him to be a tumble or anything but can you just not be a walking lick at the rim? That's going to be very, very interesting. Katz defense has been good.

Easy match against the Hawks, I'll say for him. Like for what they have as ball handlers and what Katz struggles with, that was the best case scenario for Katz defense look good, I think. So not saying he won't be good in this game. I mean, the series. Joel and B draws a lot of fouls. Tyrus Macs is very fast.

Cat is not disciplined at all. Smells like a foul trouble game series for Cat that those are the type of things that leads to the frustration with his defense and all of a sudden your rotations are thrown off. Now Mitchell Robbins is like a ton of minutes getting attacked. Like this is the type of series

that we can really decide if we feel like we feel good about his defense. Yeah. Cato was in a blender last series. Almost found out every game. Yeah. And no, Cat's a lot stronger and stouter than Cato. Yeah.

Just as undiscipline. Clint is Cato. So that's probably the swing factor, honestly, is what version of cat do we get? Yeah. It'll, it'll be fine. It might be fine. Yeah, it might be fine.

It might be fine. I'm rooting for the Knicks, though. Sounds crazy to say. Were? Yeah. We're locked in. I guess. I guess.

You got to. But listen, the enemy in my enemy. You got your shirt right there. I don't know why you're acting like you're not a fan. I am not, no. It's a common enemy. We can both hate Joel and B for the next two weeks. Yeah.

I've always wanted to see the next. in the finals too. Best one. I agree. I want to see the Knicks there because I think I've said this before on the show. It'll be very good for Shea's legacy building.

If you beat the Knicks and sweeps them in the finals, that'll be fantastic for building the aura of opponents ran through. Being able to say we beat the Knicks when they got them for the first time, it'll be a spectacle. There will be so much energy in the air

to be able to say we slayed the Knicks. Fantastic for the Shea agenda. I didn't say all that. But type shit. Or there won't be agenda. Whoever gets to beat the fuck out of them in the finals, one of those two great teams

in the West, fantastic for pushing agendas of players I love. You're going to run them. Who? Spurs. Come on now. You have a better chance there for sure than the Thunder. Yeah. Yeah.

If we did get there, I don't want to play the Thunder. I don't want to do that. Why would you? Exactly. Spurs are not seasoned. I still would pick the Spurs, but they're not seasoned. Okay. So obviously, Bolt is what Eastern Conference series?

No clues in a win. Bolt are going seven to me. Let me ask you, after the first round, do y'all feel stronger about the Eastern Conference? conference as a whole or not the way. I feel the same about East. I said Eastern Conference. Oh, yeah, Eastern Conference.

No, I feel worse about the East or the same. The one great team that I thought had the potential to run it, if things were well for them, the Celtics, we thought were great or out. Now it's a bunch of flawed teams that are all similar a level to each other. Like, they're all just a bunch of teams of volunteering to get beat by the Thunder to me. You don't think, like, the bad teams were, like,

much better than we perceived going into the playoffs. That kind of offsets that. That was never my issue. It was never the team suck. It was that I think the contenders aren't as strong as the Western contenders. Sure. Sure.

Maybe that's, maybe what you just said is fair. That wasn't my issue with the East. Yeah. What you said is very much true. Like the Orlando Magic,

who the fucking knew? This more, I fed this more so has to do with like Detroit bad than Orlando good. Exactly. And same thing for the Knicks. Like the hot,

them dropping two games has to do more with them bad versus like the Hawks and CJ McCollum and Jonathan Kaminga. And the calves. And the calves. Yeah. And the calves too. Like, bro.

You, you lost or you won. It took seven. games but also too within those games too like brandy ingram didn't play i guess he's not much of a swing or difference fact real difference maker as well that team he is they have nobody else they're better without him technically speaking yeah they're better without him in the series ingram was horrid i'm not going to lie they had a better chance now they need quickly that was a big difference ingram was horrid i'm i'm out on ingram yeah i mean you need somebody yeah quickly

that's what you need emmanuel quickly man he was terrible You're better off having a bunch of fucking manic defenders out there than an offensive player in Ingram who's giving you nothing on either end. Yeah, man. But yeah, so I honestly feel the other way that the Eastern Conference contenders are so flawed and we saw them play down on the competition a little bit. And some of it was matchup-based like we talked about that like there's a lot of strong physical teams out there that will to impose their will a little bit and that made the series longer than maybe we thought they should have been on paper. I feel like now the Celtics are out. I don't really have any faith in any these Eastern Conference teams to be able to beat the Thunder. But that also means any team in the East can get out.

And it's good parody and that's good for entertainment. Yeah, fair, fair, fair. Like, would you be shocked if any of these four teams made the finals out of the East? If the Cavs made the final, probably be shocked. Me too, but like if you tell me, if you tell me they made the finals. No, it's not what they want to do. It's not what they're supposed to be. I would genuinely be shocked if they made it.

I would be shocked too, but I'd be shocked at the sentence, the Cavs made the finals. Yeah. But if you look at a playoff bracket and say, they face the Raptors and no quickly, Ingram sucks. Okay, they faced the Pistons, who scoring wasn't ready. They got past them in a hard seven games. Okay. they face the 76ers role and B gets hurt okay the path is there that you can't be terribly surprised if we see that outcome I'd surprised okay as surprised as can be even even even even

even even even even even even even if M. B doesn't play I'm picking the sixers in the series what what you did what you did this man's gift what did you see what he just did what he wants to be shot I'd be shot dead that that's what I do he sees like gift they put in our text out comment to him saying I'm hard, he wants another one. Do it. Cut that out. Keep going, man.

My bad, man. I swear it wasn't my attention, man. On ethical emotes. All right, over to the Western Conference. We did the second because it's far less interesting than I think those two series that should go seven. Lakers versus Thunder. Austin Reeves came back, played two games. Shot up to her date the first game, naturally.

second game wasn't amazing but you started to see as the game went on started getting to the rim started being able to expotion goons like a foot speed and you start to see the elite slasher Reeves come out hopefully that momentum carries

into this next series and he can provide some amount of creation and superstar power next to LeBron James outside of that do we have anything to talk about other than the fact

that the Thunder should win with almost no issue yeah they should sweep I think Luke and I might be the first player to score negative points again dude I'm so scared for him man I'm worried for his life. It's going to be tough.

What do we even talk about in the series, man? I don't even know what to do. I'm just, honestly, the fact that the Lakers got out of the first round and didn't lose to the Rockets, it's gravy to me. I'm happy with the season. The fact there's no Luca and LeBron was able to have that moment where he beat Katie's team and so forth, I'm happy. I don't care what happens. Brian. Brian, you can rest.

Yeah. I'm going to other way. Ron, roll the ball out of you. Give me one. Just one. To have them shook. You can lose the next one. I didn't think it win a game.

I think... I don't know. Can. I didn't say Will. Yeah, they can. They can. Just because we've seen in years past at Thunder

I do for some bad shooting games. J.J. Reddick is amazing at gimmick-ass defenses that leaves shooters open and takes away the rim. Maybe we get a bad shooting game. LeBron has like one half in him per series where he can be Superman.

Yes. This might be a... This is probably a better matchup for LeBron to score. He was posting up Tari, and Jabari Smith every possession last series. Those guys are perfectly equipped to defend old man LeBron.

Case Mawles is an awesome defender. Small. She's a very good defender. Much smaller than LeBron James. No Jada up there. They're going to be playing a lot of players that are smaller than LeBron James if we're going to do that, like,

play through him in the post, get it out the mud offense because we muddy things down with the shooting of the thunder. LeBron could probably do that for a game or two. You tell me they win one, because they get unstable shooting, shooting that they shoot like 70% from three

something they can't do every game. Remember they beat the Thunder last year because they did that? They shot like a franchise record from three and they beat the Thunder when they first got Luca. The Lakers do that again. Rui Hachamore is the most efficient three-point shooter, named a history. He's currently shooting 50% from three in his career.

Who is the best 3 in D player? Apparently, Rui, don't talk about the D, but the three, Ruby is currently the best shooter in the playoffs. They shoot 65% from 3 for one game. The Thunder shoot 18% from 3. LeBron scores 30. Luke Shea has a whatever game. Check gets dominated by LeBron on the boards.

We can get one game Just win one of the first two Has them to have them to have many Things they need to go the way So that's so true That's game three When they go down 2-0 They win game 3 in that fashion

So that's my That's my real question right now Is because they are going to get swept How many How many 30 point games Are we getting from Brian? One I think you could get maybe two

You get a couple of 25 point games 1302 Or so we're saying it's a sweep One 30 point game A 22 point game 25 and like a 12 12. One stinker.

It's so brutal. It's hard for him to do for many games in a row with that energy level. One stinker. Okay. Let's say 18. 12's mean.

18. Okay. One 30 point game. That's a lot to overcome. Okay. I don't know if he got, I don't know if he got two even. I might take that back.

It was a four game series. It's hard to get too. Yeah. Austin Reeves. He's 41 and he can't get 30. Come on. Oh, we go back to me. What's unfortunate is this is the worst matchup on Earth

for Austin Reeves. he's not going to look good in this match. Especially coming back from this injury, he also, like, I was thinking that he was going to score negative points too, but I was like, now he's better than that.

So, you know, he can, but the narrative, though, of Austin Reeves' playoff dropper. It's not going to go well. It probably will continue after this series. 100%. And it's unfortunate

because, again, underman, coming off of an oblique injury that we see everybody that gets that comes back rusty for a while. It is what it is. He's going to get destroyed by somebody's defender,

some games. Just have a couple games where you come out there and you get buckets and I can feel good about you. That's all I'm watching for, really, is me just wanted to see awesome Reef and LeBron do good.

He finished you 34% from the field, man. No chance. There's no chance. Luca comes back, right? The last reporting is he's not close and the earliest we can see he's at game four. He hasn't started running yet.

I don't want him to come back. No, honestly. I don't want to see him come back off with not running for six weeks, have this weird quick recovery and then just get fucking blasted and shoot some tour dates by the Thunder. They're going to shoot him out

with what they gave OG2. I don't even want to see it. Just take the algorithmously. next year we'll have a better chance I'm just glossy on the floor he's not gonna know where he's at I don't want to see Luke in this series personally I've been seeing too many

Goku Vegeta edits Oh do I love those One minute is an eternity He's nuts I'm so sick I've never seen that shit of my wife You didn't see that No

There's a scene in Dragon Ball Z where Goku Vegeta are fighting And they're fighting I forget who they're fighting this series They go so They're fighting A powerful ally and Goku's like, I need a minute to recharge.

And he's basically saying, can you give me one more day? And it's like the dramatic thing is like, can you give me one more minute? And they're doing edits of like Jada McDaniels talking to Anthony Edwards saying I need one more series. They're quite tough. What's your question? Who's Vegeta?

I know who's Vegeta is. I know who Goku is. I don't know who Vegeta is his enemy turned ally. His peer, his like near equal and power level, his sidekick dude that originally was his enemy and now they're like buddies to fight people. Gotcha. I've never seen.

Dragon Ball beat. Gotcha. I seem like a cat's okay. I got a little bit of all knowledge. A little and all that. I know a little bit. Yeah. I've heard a little bit.

Anyways. Steph Curry's Kevin Durant. Okay. Okay. C and three. Yeah. Okay. C and three.

Okay. Is there like a, so there's like a back and forth on who's better Goku and or Vegeta or is like there is no back and forth. Goku's better. Goku is better. Goku beats him at first because Vegeta's an initial villain of the series. Then he becomes good and joins his side.

and they're like this powerful duo. But Vegeta's always the closest to him, but never at his level, because Goku's like fucking God. Gotcha. Yeah. So right now. Goku's God.

Is that glazed is Goku? You can't glaze Goku? I don't know. Okay. Oh, you haven't heard the stories about Goku? It's not. Goku comes back from the dead all the time. He's God.

Goku fans write about Goku, man. Wow. Yeah. What were you going to say? No, they just write about Goku. Oh, they sent them before that. No, no. Before the God question.

solid. Is there anything else we're looking for? Like, is there anything that, like, what do you want to see from OKC in this series? Honestly, can you win in four? Like, I think, I don't play their food. Yeah.

I think, like, when we're talking about this level of dominance and especially now that the Celtics are out, you have them versus the Spurs out west. I think, I think seeing how far you can push this team and, like, the levels of great. This is really what I like.

And I've said it over and over and over again. I like seeing teams. that have opportunities to do historic things, go out and chase those, those opportunities, and chase those accomplishments. And so, like, you were saying it the other day when we were watching the game, you're like, what if OKC just, like, sweep the playoffs?

And what if they go, you know, 12 and 0 or 16 and 0? It would be, now, I don't think they're going to do that if they play the Spurs. They're not going to the Spurs. Yeah, but it would be a fun thing to just think about going into the next series if they haven't lost this entire playoff. So I do want to see them really, really be dominant. Yeah.

And to be more specific, I want to see AJ Mitchell pay really well and show they don't need J-Dubs ball handling and be able to like, you know. Tyree's voice happening in. That will be big, though. Yeah, we'll stay in the J-Dub injury and just go out there and say, we're not missing a step. We don't need the ball-hailing entirely. We're not completely reliant on him.

I want to see the double bigs. Rack havoc, personally. I want to see them have those reps are important, I think, get those double bigs out there, which at times last year the offense got really clunky. I want to see that offense to see how Chet plays of the power forward with Braun having a lot of touches on him, how Chek gets his game off with that strength disadvantage. Yeah, that's the biggest thing. I love how you started off with AJ Mitchell.

Overall, like, I want to see this roster just be more consistent, specifically when it comes to the shooting. Defensively, their defense is going to carry them through all their roles, but how bad can the shooting get? How bad can outside of say like the creation look? And I want to see that if they're truly like an all-time team, I want to see them do like historic all-time team things consecutively. I think. think even with like yeah going back to what you said even without jadob like they should be oh a okay going through the lakers and they should realistically speaking if they're that great sweep them now of course they're going to need jad up in the spurs series of like i i think so but

even like even if jadab does like come out so or needs comes out slower needs more time they should like not brace do the spurs at all but i would still like put them over the top because they got shay i don't know man that spurs series is going to be war it is going to be war We'll talk about that when we get there, but that's going to be the series of the playoffs. That's the finals. If things go chalk. But speaking of that, Spurs versus Timberwolves,

Anthony Edwards is pushing to make a return in this series early. He's questionable for game one. It doesn't seem like exactly going to play game one. Game two or three, maybe we start ramping it up. Let's say he returns game three. Let's be optimistic that from that injury, he's back game three. Whatever hold they're in by then,

is the holder in by then. What do you feel that Timberwolves can do without Anthony Edwards to make this a series against the best defensive player in the league and Victor Womenyama without a clear star to stress him without a clear stretch big to keep Victor Womiyama from dominating the paint.

How can the Timbules make this interesting? Jada McDaniels is once again going to have to do what he did at the end of the Nugget series which I don't think we've talked about since the series ended. Oh yeah, we didn't talk about the Yolkish thing at all. Disappointed as hell. Like, what do you mean? You lost this. Disgusting. Quick change.

We're putting this aside for a second to slander the Nuggets some more. We did it when they went down 3.1. my God, I hate the Denver Nuggets now. That was crazy. I hate the Denver Nuggets. That was insane. Nicole Yokes is not the best play in the world. That's like not a conversation anymore.

This is Shay and Wembe's conversation. Until Nicole Yokich earns it back, this is a Shay and Wembe debate at the top, depending on how the series goes in the conference finals. And I understand Aaron Gordon wasn't there. They didn't have Aunt I.O. Dante was there in his cast, just cheering the team on.

Y'all got walked down by Terran Shannon Jr. By Jada McDaniels, who shot to him, talked as much as you can. can talk and backed it up in every sense. He, him and Rudy Gobert had the series of their lives and they dominated this, this Nuggets team that right now should be in an existential crisis. We talked in our Thursday episode. It was the day of Game 6.

We said, God damn it, the Nuggets are about to get blessed with an unethical comeback. They're going to come back down from 3-1 and push Duo Game 7 because isn't there and DeVincenzo isn't there. It's going to be annoying because the Nuggets clearly deserved to lose this series, but maybe they'll advance. and you were saying you feel even better about them against the Spurs and do against the Timberwolves because the match was so different

and it was like annoying that we have to deal with the fact that this team isn't going out and being put down like the deserve. And then you don't even get to a game seven, you get blasted, that's crazy. It was unfathomable to watch that we got to this point that I said all year I don't have the faith in the Nuggets

to win the championship to the same level everybody else does. I wasn't quite as moved by their offseason additions of Jonas Found Chun and Tim Hardaway and so forth. But I definitely thought they were good enough to get out of the fucking first round in the first place. I thought they were good enough

to have an offense to at least beat the Timberwolves and be interesting in the second and third round when they lose to the better teams of the Thunder or the Spurs. I had questions.

I thought those questions would come into play a lot further than they did in this series where the questions proved to be their entire identity,

their weaknesses were their entire conversation in this series. You know it's annoying to me too? When we made our predictions and I said, I think they can beat the Timberwolves

and I'm not that worried about it is because I had faith in Jamal Murray having such an amazing season. I said, in 2024, a lot was made about the fact that Nicole Yokic was neutered by the double big defense of Carthorne Towns and Gobert. That was overblown.

The real story of 2024 was one that Michael Poor Jr. couldn't do anything. And Jamal Murray got put in a torture chamber by Jada McDaniels. And I said, well, Jamal Murray leveled up. He's playing an All-Star. I'm going to assume he doesn't get locked up by Jada McDaniels. He got done the worst way by Jada McDaniels. Got locked up just as bad. He was just as efficient as Nicola Yokic.

They have real questions to answer, and I don't think anybody on the roster is safe outside Nicole Yolkich, and that include Jamal Murray. Yeah, I agree. Like, they literally sent them, the Timberwell sent the nuggets spiraling. Jamal Murray, something that we said specifically was like, this is not the same same, same Jamal Murray that we've seen in years prior in Minnesota Timberville series at all. It was the exact same. He's never changed. Not even the exact same. This is the worst version of the worry that I goddamn seen, bro.

He shot 26% from the three point line and 35% from the field. He had processed. He's zero good game. br like of course like when it comes to the timber when it comes to the Denver nuggets most of their problems like it starts with their defense and ends with their defense like not having as much size behind yokets and seeing guys go down like pain watson and ericor and it fucking sucks and they need those guys so desperately and direly but even without those two seeing them just like not have literally anybody give them no juice at all and seeing how one of the bigger talking points is

how they're over-reliant and that's like an over-reliant on the two-man and that's like an over-reliant on the two game and all that and that's what they spam for the most part like yes that's that's true but at the end of the day like if jamal murray's going to come into a series and shoot 35% from fucking three like yeah you're down right like everyone outside Nicole yokech should be up for discussion not really speaking do i think that's something that they'll probably do that no because it's kind of hard to do so but overall like all all discussions are up for fucking rabs they have so much to i i can see that I feel like it might be a little hard to do so. To trade Jamal Murray?

Yeah, it might be hard to do so. I don't know. There's a lot of teams out there that could use a Jamal Murray. Yeah. It depends on what you get back, honestly. And if you're doing that, then your entire team is just like, this is a retool from scratch pretty much. And I think that might be needed, honestly.

Yeah. Aaron Gordon is the reason Nicole Yokish can survive defensively a championship level. Aaron Gordon's body is giving up on him. We're reaching that point. It's multiple years. Yeah, two player runs in the room. Aaron Gordon, and a whole regular season in between. Aaron Gordon is shifting into a different stage of his career, it seems,

that his body isn't. A lot of playoff runs are catching up to him. Unfortunately, it happens. If that's going to be the case, and you don't have that gifted, large, stout defender to pair with Nicole Yokic, you're not going to have a good defense with Yokic. And everything they said about him early in his career will be true. So now you've got to find somebody else that can do that when Aaron Gordon isn't healthy

and maybe have Aaron Gordon be a six man or something, some way to manage his body, unless he has a summary which he gets right physically, which we can't say, right? That's a new direction you have to go. I think that Jamal Murray and Nicole Yokesh pairing is obviously legendary. It's right, right?

They want a championship with it. If you tell me he wants a course, I'm not going to argue with you. If you tell me you want an offensive player that can provide a little bit more without the Joaquish gravity, a little bit more of a paint touch guy, I'm not mad at you.

If that involves not trained Jamal Marie and just getting a secondary guard next to him that can create pain touches, cool, that's also an option. I'm not saying you have to trade Jamal Murray, but I'm not mad at you if you suggest it. I'm not mad at you if you suggest anything. on this roster.

Yeah, I agree. And then the whole Christian Browns, Christian Brown's contract starts like next year, which is fucking disgusting. He was absolutely useless in this series as well. Cam Johnson is Cam Johnson and he had a rough three-point shooting series. But overall, too, like...

Yeah, he had moments. He is like one of the brighter talking points in it comes to this, but even then, like, disappointing series are all around for everyone. So it's... It sucks. Also, it's like a big thing. For me, this playoffs is like how you're going out.

Yeah. And they went out so sad. You have the little scuffle at the end to. And everything from this team looks so soft. And when Eric Gordon is not out there playing at his best, they have no physicality, no like mental toughness, no mental edge where a team like Minnesota is down all of these people. But J.D. McDaniels is just like a demon. and can talk and back it up and you get that that sort of level of energy there's also been times

where like Chris Finch has also been you know like he's had the shake comments and it's like ah that's that's that's kind of whack but you go in you do have this like coach playoff rising type of thing the the the the Adam and stuff and the way that he was discussing this series and discussing McDaniels and then the behavior from from Yokic towards the end of the series it is just an an incredibly terrible way to go out. Bro, this is officially like, this is the biggest bite on Yolk, which is playoff resume and resume overall.

Oh, easily. This is his 2011 LeBron moment. And when it comes to, yeah, you're right. It's a first round. Not even by I would assume who went fucking there. This is so bad. Much, I don't know if it's much.

It's much worse. I don't know if it's. You lot, the LeBron stuff, we don't, I don't want to relitigate it. It's the finals. You made to the finals, the biggest level. You lost to a great team,

which one of the greatest, players of all time on the other side. There's much more details there. And the method stuff, we get it. This is the first round. Nobody of Merit, Ball and Heather Wise is playing, and you get sent fucking packing. And it's because of you and your defense and your inability to be a anchor with anything other than the perfect scenario around you, which involves Aaron Gordon.

The lack of versatility of his defense to survive without an amazing defender next to him. You're the reason team lost. Your offense makes it that value. You played your worst offense I've ever seen in a playoff series. This is much, much worse. worse to me. It's a much bigger blight. Now, it won't age that way. Yeah, I don't know. No buckets in the fourth. It's got a crazy like, you know, like that was, you know, like that

was the finals in the greatest player of all time. So we won't age as much of a blight because we'll talk about 20s forever. But in terms of like the actual product, this is a much more, much worse, much worse. If prime brawn did this in the first round against Bones, Highland and Julius Randall, oh my fucking God, he'd be eviscerated. It would be tough. So yeah, listen, they're pulling out all the stats. And the timelines of their careers. That was before LeBron started winning championships. So it was like the warts you take to get that level. This is Yokic at 31.

You've already won a championship. We're not talking about you trying to learn from this. You would just shit yourself. Yeah. That's crazy, man. They're bringing out all the stats. They've never beat a 50-win team in the playoffs. Oh, it's 50-plus win.

50-plus one. Who had 50-win? Clippers last year. Ah, didn't it? Yeah, they changed it. Last year, they were saying 50-n-plus. Yeah. Whatever.

Whatever. Which is like, I don't even care about that. It doesn't even matter. Like, it's so bad. And this, this man, you won 2023. We thought you were set up with this perfect starting five to be great for years to come. You lost KCP. Since then, it's been two years of trying to reload and figure out ways to get back to that level.

We thought you got there now finally. You didn't. And the window is just kind of shut, it seems. He has to prove himself, man. Like, seeing how, bro, the touch, not what it is at all. It's been back to play out of front. Now, okay, he's one of the greatest defenses of all time. We all realize that.

But you just look so out of warts. and seeing him come into the series or leave the series shooting like 16% from the three point line. This is not the first time we've seen this from Nicole Yokic in the in the playoffs, row, seeing how he hasn't been able to get off. No, Timberos did a very tremendous job of taking away all the easy looks, how he likes to get off his push shots and all that. They did fantastic. But for someone like Nicole Yolich, who is widely renowned,

so people were saying like this is the greatest offensive player of all time. Meanwhile, we got guys like Jordan Curry and Bob, who played as well to come into the series and do all that, bro. It's disgusting. The other combo might just be that I do think he was

in that top tier of greatest players of all time offensively in 2023 and 24. Maybe those days are past them. Maybe it's just, I mean, you can't maintain, not everybody maintains

the one of the greatest peaks of all time for a decade like the Bron did or Jordan did. So I'm not, it's not like an insult to say you're no longer playing at the peak of one of the four greatest players of all time.

But maybe we're just at that point now where everybody's body ages differently. Maybe everybody's jump shot and touch and everything ages differently. Maybe we're still seeing a best than a world caliber player, but not one of the goats anymore. Dang that's crazy. He's out the top 25. I will say, I believe. It is funny that like, obviously I'm a huge Yokish fan. I've been a huge Yokish believer in all facets. I've always said like when we did our rankings, I put him like 19 or 20. Some people that were like maybe the best player of all time, top 10, they weren't doing too much. So this is the natural course correction

and finally some pushback. Yeah. Like even I, as a big Yolkich fan, had the sense to never say he's having one of the best all all-around peaks of all time or a top-10 player already. That was always a bit much. He's still on-paced, man. On-pace is different. Yeah. That's a different conversation.

Everybody's on pace. They haven't been back to the conference finals. Yeah, sure, sir. So saying he was on pace in the past two years wasn't crazy. Some people say he's already a top-10 player. Yeah. Oh, no, yeah. Those are the wolves, you're right.

Yeah, second round. So to say he was on pace the past years, it's fine. Yeah. Different conversation, though. So yeah, they have a crisis on their hands. And pivotal off-season will say how they go about it. Thanks. But back to the Spurs and rules.

Now we can talk about that. Jamal Murray, we can save you. Toma. Tomah for Jaylon Brown? Hold on. Live by the three, die by the three. I know. I don't even know who gets better from that, honestly.

I'm just saying if we're going to die about it through, let's at least get some 40% shooters on the team. Okay. I don't know. It doesn't shoot 40%. If Anthony Edwards isn't going to be playing Slash or not available, I think we all think this bird's going to win the series. Yes.

I think we all think that Victor Womeniama's defense is going to be the difference here. They have Ruehobar. As long as he's on the court, Victor Womianma can sit in the paint all he wants. Because even if you put Riegelberg in the dunker spot and try to mitigate the lack of spacing and give him the dump-off pass, Victor Wibon Yama is the one man capable

of defending the ball handler and stopping the lob from the dunker spot to go bare. I don't see any route in which, Richard Ruben Yama doesn't dominate the series and shut off the paint, it'll be a matter of can they hit enough mid-range jumpers, can they hit enough catch and shoot three, some other guys, to beat them in the series? I doubt it.

So there's not really any part of me that things that Timberl is going to win this series. As much as I always say that and they come out and make the conference finals and find a way to make me pay. Ant being injured is just kind of like a harsh reality, right? Yeah, it's a non-starter. It's a non-starter for a lot of these things, man, because

and being out, and then on top of that to Dante de Vincenzo, you lost your best three-point shooter as well. That's tough. Now you have to rely on like super young guys and I do assume who I'm assuming we'll be back for game one. Hopefully. Yeah, hopefully. And then also your guard,

your guard death is depleted. It's shot to fucking hell. They have no chance. I don't see any avenue where maybe they can make this interesting and like get. Yeah, yeah. I think it's a game, maybe like two games. Depending on Anthony Edwards. Okay.

If it's there, maybe. He'll come back halfway. I'm pretty sure. But even then like, what type of ant are you getting back? too. Well, he's young and bounces back. It's not like it was a crazy injury. He might come back and be... But even in the first round, like even his performance against

the Nuggets, like you can tell he was clearly laboring. He didn't put up good numbers at all. They did not win this series because of Anthony. Now he has two knees that hurt. And he had one game where the athleticism did look like normal. If Ant comes back in and plays,

I'm looking for one thing. The thing that I've been saying all year, can you challenge him to be at the room one time? I just want to see it. I want to see you try and dunk on Wemby. That's it because outside of that, you are going to need, you're going to need two years ago when they played Denver. And they had that one game where everybody was just Scotty Pippen reincarnated. And they just had like the greatest defensive game of all time.

You're going to need that basically across the board to really put pressure on Harper, on, on Fox, on Castle, and see if you can make them jump shooters and hope that their jump shot is not falling. and then start to get all of that variance because even like Terran Shannon Jr., he was finding a lot of success because he was going at Yokin, she was able to get downhill.

You're not going downhill with Wembe's right there, so I don't know how much success you're going to get. This might be the worst series of all time for someone like Julius Rando, man. He's going to be in hell. Yeah, we'll see. Well, they don't have a lot of power force

has bodies to defend him outside of Wemby. So he might have some opportunities, to have some decent games. I don't know if it matters. It's a lot of, it's Julius Randall game, but it's a lot of, lot of bump fades and I'm not I'm not sure like if they're falling then then we have a we're having a different conversation but if we're just getting a regular normal Julius Randall thing

and those shots are going in you know 42% of the of the time then I don't I don't know what I do think as the Timber Wills were fully healthy this would be a great series that the Timber Wills fully healthy have enough to make this more than they they wouldn't get walked over by the spurs 100% but they're not fully healthy so I think just the simple answer is for everything we know the spurs have done all year we think they should should as long as the aunt's not there when every game we'll talk about it again when we get to thursday when hopefully aunt is ready to come back and then maybe we'll see how it looks like first game and things will change but for now depending on the ant thing there's not really new route

to the timber was winning i think yeah i'm just happy they're they're here so if he comes back and if he comes back and if he comes back and if he comes in him and then julius randall stills him a game we can get a long series that they surprise us but that's me saying if it comes back with zero education on what aunt is going to look like or zero idea of when he'll come back. So that's pure hopeful. I'm knocking Wemby down again. That's the only way. Like the, the blazers got a game because Wemby was out cold. Like you got a hope. Yeah. You got to, you got to, man. They proved that every year, if you give them a soft-ass team, they will son them. And that, that's a reputation I'd like to have. Yeah. That's the team I can rule for. I can move for the hell

out of that team. Sure. Salute. Salute. And that is our second round preview. Let's talk about some news. Yes. We have one. One new story we have to talk about today. We've been talking a lot in the recent months about the clear changes the NBA are going to make to the NBA lottery. They're done with tanking. They said, by any means necessary, we will fix this issue. And it seems we finally have the solution they are going to implement.

It was reported that this is probably going to be it. Beesoles pull this up. MBA proposes new lottery system to crack down on tanking. The lottery is expanded from 14 teams to 16 teams. With the relegation zone being the bottom three, you get worse odds than a number one pick. teams outside the bottom three get three lottery balls opposed to two

for the worst three teams playing teams also receive lottery balls varied by seeds no team can win the number one pick in back to back years no team can get

three straight top five picks so like what the spurters did can't happen NBA teams or NBA can punish teams tanking by reducing their odds or moving picks and the system will run

through 2029 as a trial how do we feel about all this very very very you're polarizing to start out positive, I think it makes it interesting because, yo, this is the best time to be mid. This is the best time to be in the middle. What do you mean? You could be a team like this, Charlotte Horace, for example, from this year and luck yourself

out of, play yourself out of the playoffs. And now you're telling me you could land like a top two pick and get someone like DeBonso. That's not happening this year. But as for instance, that's like, this is the best time to be mid because you could be somewhat in position. instead of like, I feel like this rule is good because, okay, like for a lot of teams, if you're middling in, if you're a middley in the pack team, instead of like making yourself be really asked what you see a lot of teams exaggerate things and drag things and sell off everything,

like the Memphis Grizes, for instance, like they were, they were bad, but they're not like this level of bad. They're not a 27 or 28 win team like we've seen them be this year. They could have been decent. And I think you're completely taken away the shamelessness when it comes to a bi-flat. which is like the interesting part of I'm being positive. Yeah. Okay.

Since we started this conversation, my initial thought was Tinkin's kind of an unmitigated reality that you can't say that anything causes it, but it will be there. That you do need teams that are bad because that's how they get good, they get the best players, and that's how parity happens, right? That the idea of trying to stop teams from being really bad, whether it be on on purpose or just because they're bad is kind of a fool's errand to me in a league that needs parody long term and needs the way for the worst teams to get better. So the idea of addressing that issue at first to me was just kind of unnecessary and doing too much and could just alter

the fabric with the league a little bit too much, right? Now that I see this, I do still believe that if everything was up to me, I would ignore the people on fucking outkick in Fox News saying the NBA is dying and the takings of reason and just like not let that PR battle go towards them and just try to do some small stuff but not do anything too crazy. But if I'm allowing myself to believe that Adam Silver is right and that tanking is a huge portion of the NBA's identity that needs to be solved that we can't stand for martial basketball being terrible. I think this specific formula of rules could have good effects for their goals.

So do you guys, you guys care about it for the bottom teams? Because like if you're in the bottom three and you get fewer, fewer ping pong balls, then your opportunity to get a to get a wimby, to get it, to get a K, like that's lower. Does that matter a lot for all? Yeah, 100% of it. Yeah, let me show the graphic first. So we can talk about it.

This is a visualizer. So currently the top four teams have the best odds, right? The dark green. Now it will be the middle teams have the best odds. The worst teams have the same odds as the midteams. So the idea here, before I answer your question, is that instead of bottoming out, you're encouraged just as much trying to make the play in.

So when we get to March and your team that's in, the middle and let's say you're in a position that you can go either way, there's just as much incentive for you to try to beat the Bulls and you try to be the 10 seed because you get the same amount of odds. So if there's eight teams that suck ass right now and four decide to try to make a play and push because there's no reason from them to try to go to the bottom because it weighs out the same, that'll be more good basketball games. That'd be more watchable basketball games and that don't add out to a better product. That while, of course, there'll still be teams that tank and make sure they're in that dark green side on the right, there'll be less teams

because some teams that are on the bubble either way are incendiative vise to try to win games. And those bottom few teams are all incentivized to try to win games and get out the bottom three. So overall, on the margins, more good basketball games will be played. Yeah, you're trying to eliminate all the fuck shit that you see. Like, the Wizards, they've been on some fuck shit,

but like, trade could have played when he got traded. Of course, he was Jen and he hurt, but he could have played and they used them in spurts and they limited his minutes. But they wanted to be so fucking bad, so piss poor, and they put out fuck shit. And they didn't, they allowed us to like not really know how to talk about their young team or players at all. You know, this happens so often.

I think it sucks, but also too, it's like we see this time and time again already. Like the most random teams get the number one overall pick happens time and time again. It just, the only thing that really sucks for is like, I guess the Sacramento Kings of the world. Teams that are bad. I mean, not purpose. They're just, they're just bad in general. They're there for a reason. For a team, certain teams are going to be like damn near forever.

bottom dwellers. And for teams like that, hey, bro, you got to get it out the mud in different ways. Yeah, I feel like it does, it does kind of hinder the teams that are just, just bad. But I think, and so like, I can understand why people would be a little bit upset and people have been like, you know, like, why is, like, why is Adam doing this? Like, you're really making it hard for, especially for all these teams to get better. I don't care about them anymore. for all of the reason that that you said they've lost the privilege to care or to have an opinion

on this fact that's crazy they have no they have for all of the reasons that that mojus said about all these teams like they what happened none anyways you have you have bastardized the game year in and year out tanking and putting and putting out the absolute worst lineups that anybody could ever imagine in the in the sake of oh yeah we have to get the the number one overall pick and you've made it to where there is a mass psychosis around the league of half the season doesn't doesn't matter half the teams aren't trying to win you've met you've created this this situation yeah you've all we've also had a situation where a decade ago there was a GM that openly came out and told his entire fan base our plan is that we are going to lose for multiple

years so that we can get these picks. And it was, and it was fairly accepted. Obviously, he got, he got fired. But, but, but, but now, now it is. Now, now it is. Now, people, in the moment it wasn't though. Yeah. I see what you're saying. But people have looked at at what Hinky does. And it's like, that's actually the, the correct way to, to build a team. You have done all of, all of these things. I, you have no say in the matter anymore. Okay. I have to, I have to do what I have to do for the league. And so that's why, like, any pushback on, on Adam, I'm actually going to defend Adam on this one. He had to do it.

I think you're being harsh. You're being harsh, but I see your point. Be dramatic. I actually think I don't think I'm being harsh. You're objective with being harsh, but I see you. Maybe you can be harsh because they bastardize a league and harshness is the reward for that. I get it. It's not ridiculous to think that way at all.

I think if this is a very nuanced conversation, you need to be bad to be good. We see this in other leagues. The idea of eating your vegetables being bad and getting the good players to get to the top is a universal thing in a sport with a draft. That's kind of just how it goes. Not every league has 82 games though. So if you're bad in the NFL for a season, it's over in a few months and you don't endure that much suffering. In the 82 games, it's hard to stomach that. So that's why it's a little bit different. And I understand your point of view that, again, if the Browns blow the last four games, if the Raiders bench Max Crosby and blow the last two games, that's a couple

weeks. It's a month of gross product, not six months. So that's harder to deal with, and that's why it's not one to one. But it is a harsh reality that if you want the teams to have a draft as a normal league would, if you want bad teams to get good,

you got to give them the good players, right? What you're doing now is you're rewriting the way the league works. And you're saying, we're no longer

going to be a league that just works that way. That if you're bad, you get the good players and things go on a natural cycle of parity. That's not the type

of league we want to be because we don't think we're capable of reaching a balance that leads to making sense in that way and being a good entertainment product.

This is a plan put in place to say the only thing that matters is that we are entertaining the league that people want to watch the games. And right now, you mentioned you call it the psychosis. Like people say the regular season doesn't matter. That is a widely accepted truth among casual NBA fans. That regular season does not matter. So whether it be fair or not to the kings, to the pelicans who are just bad for the sake of it,

we can't survive long term as a league with fans who think the regular season doesn't matter. And whether it be the only reason or not, tanking is a big part of that. And if we can have a plan in place, that maybe is unfair to some teams. And maybe we create a permanent underclass of shitty teams who stay in the gutter, forever because they don't get blessed with Kay Cunningham and they're just shit for 10 years, that's a necessary side effect to give us more good games and more reason for fans to come watch.

So I think the answer is, no, it's not fair to those bottom teams. It's not fair at all. Fairness isn't the plan here. Saving the league and making sure longevity is the plan here. Even then, like, I think that the league and I felt this way when the second apron got put into place, I don't think that there is a

like the overall goal, if we're just going to say parity, that's fine. But like, I think the the goal and the timeline of like what is the proper way if if you ask the league and you ask Adam silver for a team to be a contender and be a perennial contender what is what is the way to do that because there are teams who have done done the tanking stuff and have built teams and now we get to the second apron and you can't pay your own people like you could be doing everything right just draft draft draft draft draft draft draft draft

draft and now I can't even pay the people that I've drafted and developed and then all these things. And so now now you are forcing this other class of teams to suffer because of something else. I think at every single level, there's some unfairness in terms of the way that you are building teams. So I think that if they're trying to rewrite the way, the correct way to build a team, I think it's okay to then go ahead and change this and have and have that's a good point. Yeah. That's a good point that they keep putting things in place to make it harder to do it the original way. The odds change in 2019 made it harder. That was a change to me that shouldn't have happened. You either should have done the original

version we had where the top few teams have a massive difference in ability to get the number one pick. Now it's the top four all the same and like that kind of made it a little more even. Now we see a lot of teams hopping up like the hawks like the math get number one pick. That was the mistake to me. It should be regular like it was originally very swayed towards the worst team getting the best pick or this new way where we're now saying that you said what's the way to do it. past few years, it's been be bad, get good, eventually fall apart for parity's sake because you can't pay everybody. Now the new way is don't do what the Thunder did. Don't do what the Spurs did.

Everybody be the Bulls. Because if you're the Bulls and we have seven teams that are the Bulls every year competing, one of you will get blessed with the top four pick every single year. And everybody will be incentivized to try to be good, try to get as many good players you can from your midpicks and you get in your mid-years. And the one year you jump into the top four, land a superstar. Every year, try to find Donovan Mitchell at the late rounds and try to find the superstars hidden. everybody try to do incrementally the right things and eventually you'll get lucky and get a victim woman yama

at kuttingham etc but the goal here is to maximize value in the middle instead of tanking for the best players which again right wrong fair unfair doesn't matter they're saying it leads to a more entertaining product and a more healthier league which I understand in some way yeah I mean inherently like that that is true

that is true I understand it 100% again do 100% agree with it when it comes to the shitter teams oh not that much but overall when it comes to the fan experience like incentivizing guys to be the bulls or even teams who are just like simply just shit out of luck like the fucking warriors like this would be like if this rule came in and was implemented in time this would be like their saving grace and that could like create whole new contenders out of nowhere and create whole new scorelines that we pretty much rarely see and I love it I like it from that aspect but also I like it when it comes to telling all these shitty teams hey like if you're here you're here for your own reasoning, you know? This has nothing to do with me. You're here because you're the Sacramento Kings and you never draft good players over the last like 10 years.

No, it is. And maybe like Tyrese Halliborne and Darren Fox. You know it is too. It's Adam Silver's fascination with European soccer still. He wants to relegate teams. This is what he's telling you, is that it was up to him and it was possible he would relegate teams. Everything since he came into the league office has been replicating the Premier League

and shit like that. Saying you can't get the top five pick three years in a row, that's as close to relegation as he's legally allowed to do. To say the bottom three teams, he had. less odds. That's as close to relegation as he's legally allowed to do. He does not want that to happen. He wants the idea to be what you just said. You try to win games and we'll see what happens to luck, but the idea of being good is what matters. And I disagree with the notion that you can try to rule your way out of bad teams existing. It's going to fuck those teams over and it is

what it is. But if they're saying that's a league we want to be, at least I admired the conviction of saying, we're going to put it in necessary steps to change the way the league operates and not some half-ass measure like the 2019. change. You know what's also interesting too? I think this does morph and it kind of changes how team building will be too. Completely changes it. Because like if I'm the Utah

jazz and I see this, I'm kind of scratching my head a little bit because it's like, fuck, like how many first round picks that I give up for Jaron Jackson Jr.? Was that necessary? Was that necessary? I don't know if I'd want to do that anymore. The value of first round picks is literally at an all time high at this point in time.

Picks are worth more for sure. You'll see more crazy stuff, which more storylines, more entertainment. teams will be known it is great teams will still happen but it will be completely random yeah like the hawks

getting the first pick the Mavs getting the first pick if these odds were happening this year like who's at the top of the lottery that could get a random number one pick and change the team but they're not top of lottery

top of the play in you use the hornets actually have the odds okay pull up the odds yeah on what they'd look like so if it happened today the hawks are the best odds because they have two

vice the apple grizzly's hornets so yeah the hornets could get up there and get Aja de Bonza and change their team That'll be fun as fuck. Literally the only time where we see a team that's pretty good like the Hornets,

which is like an anomaly. And then I guess the Indiana Paces, for instance, who are literally only bad and only prime to get a top three pick in the draft is because their star player tore their fucking Achilles. They shouldn't be this bad at all. But they are. And I think that makes even a more interesting storyline because they have this new young and dinkmuhoo with whoever it might be to put them in completely different territory.

they pretty much never been in the history of their existence. That's mad interesting. It's a different sport now. Like, yeah, this, if they do this, it changes so much.

Like, it's a very different league. It's not like any other American sports leagues. They do this. I guess it's closer to baseball, but baseball has the free agency elements that are different. And the NBA will now be a league without free agency in any way that matters

because all the star players don't make free agency anymore. Without a draft as a natural way to get top talent in any way that matters, because it's essentially random now. Not actually random, but, you know, closer to random. this is much closer to every team gets 2% than it is a traditional way or traditional draft.

The way of winning is just like, you just have to be nice and you have to find players in the draft and be really, really good. They're demanding everybody be the thunder and find J. Dubs later in the picks by AJ Mitchell's in the second round. They're demanding every front office

slowly get incredibly smart and that would be good for long-term health. I promise you the Kings will never have a smart front office, they're broke. I promise you the trailblazers now will never have a smart front office, they're broke. Some of these teams, when they get bad,

aren't going to be able to find their Sam Presti and they'll just be garbage for 10 years until they get lucky. Damn, that's tough, man. That's what they did. He would say, get you relegated, buddy. That's tough. What are the Hawks odds right now?

Do you know? They have, I think, the seventh best odds right now. I feel bad for the Hawks. The only year they get the number one pick is the Reese Shade draft. It's tough, man. Just do it in there. It is.

And then this is what it's supposed to be with the newer forms. And we're finally headed into a league that actually incentivized teams for being mid. And there's most mid-time. But we'll run this bitch. But that's okay. You get me? Don't say what a.

You will run this bitch. You're going to be mid forever. Eventually, you're going to be here again. You're never going to leave mid, so you're going to continue to run this bitch. You don't matter now. Yeah. Listen, man. Did Adam Silver just change my broke ass life?

Yes. Yes. And that is the point. He changed your broadcast life. He changed Miami's broadcast life. He changed Miami's broadcast life. life and he's saying the rest of your broke lives that you choose to be broke, go be broke like the Hawks. We want a different type of broke in our league because Hawks games are respectable to watch

in March. And again, I do not like the idea on paper, but in terms of I was in the league office and Adam was explained this to me, I would understand it. I'm always going to be scared of Adam Silver Change, though. Me too. I go lying. Because every time we talk about these changes, there's always a side effect that makes us turn. Like you fix the problem that you were trying to solve, then you create a whole new problem that we just, it's low-key a worst problem. And that'll happen. With this real change that will happen, people will treat it that way,

but it won't be a new problem. It will be the intended side effect. Because they will see the Kings win 15 games and get the eighth pick and they'll say that's a problem and Adam Silver always say, nope, that's the point. Right or wrong, that's the point. When they got the second pick, they picked Marvin Bagley. Yep, Shenandoah. Yeah. And even then, too, if that's the case, if you're a

good team who has good aspirations and you hire the smart people and you put so much money into your scouting department and all that you could there's still ways to so to get over this and not be one of the teams who are just shut out of luck and get the 12th pick or whatever it is you know you could be like okay see and snipe of j-dub you could be i don't know a team like the goddamn pistons and remember they got like five they got like the fifth overall pick or something like for consecutive years like you could be smart and wiggled your way around that or you could just be again like the kings

who are, I feel like, pretty much like the only bad team in the league who has like legitimately stupid people in that front office who just always make somehow some way the worst decision possible. But to be fair, the Pistons would be the Kings if they didn't get one, that one time and get Kade. Yeah. I'm just rolling out here with Jaden, Ivy, S.R. and the guys, the number five, Ron Holland, they would be the Kings. So in some regards, it will still come down to who gets lucky that year.

And it'll be your job to do everything you can to be ready for when you get lucky. Yeah, man. Just got to be smarter. I know what I like though the NBA does have real problems and it's talked about so much online about like has the MLB passed them up they're a dying league and all this stuff

the sentiment is bad amongst casual fans aren't into the league and everybody has their ideas of why that is I think almost all of them are misguided the conversation about why the NBA's failing has become here's my personal gripe this is why the league is failing this is why the conglomerate will die

because my one miniscule own complaint that personally bothers me is it all right that happens a lot Yeah. One of the actual real problems I need to solve is people not think that regular season matters. That sentiment and people not wanting to tune in isn't a huge deal right now. It will be six years from now when the main audience is these 15-year-olds now that don't care about regular season and only watch on social media that consume the NBA through the deep three podcast clips. The people that only do that and don't watch games because they're 15 now when they're 21, if they feel like the NBA regular season doesn't matter, they won't watch games.

as millennials age out of the target demographic and Gen Z becomes the main one and even below that, Gen Alpha, if they don't think regular season games matter, that will become the biggest long-term issue they could possibly have. I mean, Adam Silver has heard that. He says, oh, watch some highlights, buddy.

You know, that's all I got for you. And he says that because he had to say something positive. He knows that the biggest threat to him is that young people don't care about sports as much. And that's coming for every league. Every league across, look across America, ask your younger brothers, younger cousins,

they don't care as much about sports as you do when you're their age. That's like a, no matter what, They watch YouTube more. They watch streamers more. They don't care about sports. So making the young people care. Oh,

I'm not that bad. Not that bad. I'm not on kick streams. I'm not watching all the guys. That is a serious problem coming for all leagues. They got to touch grass, man. You got to roll the ball out. Put your hand in the dirt, man.

These kids bitch made, man. Let's just talk about it, bro. All you want to do is hop on top on fucking Twitch and watch all these guys. Oh, man. Yeah. So they don't care about sports, right? That's going for every single league. NBA has a youngest league.

so they will feel that effect soonest. So if this is his way of trying to make young people care about sports as much as possible and show that the games matter as much as possible, you got to respect it. That's a real looming issue for every league. And also too, all these partners

just give you a fucking boatload of money too. So it's like you got to consistently try to make the league better and better and better to hold up to basically year one now that we're in of these new deals. Also, the tanker also kind of had to go, you just had a coach arrested for giving,

giving away information on the tanking team like like that that is that is something that you do have to be mindful of of like hey we are at at all times it is more beneficial for a team to try and win basketball games so that you can knock out tanking you can knock out gambling scandals and stuff like that that's the part where it loses me because you never get rid of that you're never getting rid of shit like that so hopefully they're not motivated by things like that in the gambling world because that's a hampshire well you're never getting off of but hopefully their hearts in the and it's about longevity and it's fine. If anyone wants to be mad,

bro, put all your static towards the Utah Jazz. Put all your static towards teams like the Wizards. Everyone in the league. Yeah, it's like you got that one dumb ass kid in the class who fucking cheated on a test or whatever or got the class in trouble. He's like, fucking, you know what? All y'all homework tomorrow.

All y'all pop quiz. Damn. That's literally the Utah Jazz. W analogy? W. analogy. Compi. Very comfy. Very comfy.

Nice. Tough. Copy wordplay. Also, we see. once again cyberbullying works oh you can you can you can cyber bully

Adam Silver into do whatever you want that motherfucker is so online this is the most online leak ever every single change has been in recent years has been because Twitter bothers him he doesn't like complaints you can cyber bully him

into getting a toupee I would even go further I think in the world of sports bullying just works I guess in the world of sports you try to bully Roger Goodell to doing something with the NFL

he's gonna tell you to go fuck yourself okay maybe it's just a basketball it's a basketball thing It is also that MLB may change is for the for the right Adam Silver will be bullied and doing right anything right or wrong Yeah, they put in racism in the fact You're right bullying works Hey man that's true Adam Silver is the most gullible man in the earth he'll do anything Last thing we're gonna do today they took that off didn't they?

No NFL just took it off yeah NFL had it and racism the NBA had a bunch of stuff yeah NFL just took it off just Trump's America yeah Last thing we're going to do today, AJ DeBanza has a new logo by Nike as a college prospect. They gave him a logo. So on the topic of that news, I'm going to show you guys 16 NBA player logos.

We're going to put them into a bracket and decide which one we think is the best one in this bracket. Okay. Let's do it. Let's do it. So 16, first up, AJ DeBonsa's logo versus Andrew Wiggins. Who's up first?

Who's the winner? What the hell? You say what the hell to AJ's? Barf and throw up. I don't know which is worse. So AJ's is like a star. And if you look, the bottom is like an A. Next to it is like a J.

The symbol. It's like an A and a J. And then the left one's a D, allegedly. I gotta be so high to fucking realize that, bro. I have to be off the wildest drugs to really put that together. All those shapes you're kind of hook like.

So you rotate a hook a bunch of ways. You get to all the letters. You just explained it to me. Still don't see it. You see it? That's awful. Okay, look at the bottom, the bottom one. A, you see that right?

Yeah. Okay. Look to the left. J. You see that right? I see the J. I see the J. D above the J.

It's like the left line is gone. It's just this side, the swoop. So you rotate. This is such a bad logo. He just walked up in there. I do so much explanation for a logo. Dude, he walked up in there. He said, I want a star.

That's it. Don't tell me how you do. Figure it out. I just want a star. That's it. Like, that was his wrong. And they're like, hey, man, we'll try to figure it out. This is the best thing he could do.

Is it better than Andrew Wiggins? Yes. No, wait, no. No. Andrew Wiggins is better. Andrew Wiggins is no much of lines. It looks like a construction company. At least I can like tell what it is.

It's a Rita logo. Well, first off, waterburger logo clears. Yeah, don't. Just saying it's not even original. Don't disrespect, Duncan, man. Don't, don't disrespect water burger. I like water burgers. Okay, okay.

Just making sure. I'm saying, it's just, the original. What are you guys call your, your, your, your, your, your, your, you don't know Hold on. I'm defending Waterburger, relax. Don't say nothing about water brown. Talking with some munchkins. Whole ass snack. Well, you're a Dunkin' Donuts guy?

I have to be. It's blood. Why do you have to be? America runs on Duncan. And it was a... This is why we don't like Boston, right? Even America runs on Boston. Ew, no. Anyways, I think Agent

probably wins this. Yeah, Wiggins clears. This is one of the worst logos. Maybe he just want a star. It's a solid star. I've seen in a while. I think it's local way is incredibly lame too. Yeah, it's just like nothing. It looks like some graphic design company, just like getting out the mud or whatever.

Graph design student did it. Yeah. Let's go with AJ. And you know what? They got an F. Yeah. AJ wins. Round two.

Donovan Mitchell versus KD. Two heavy hitters. These are tough, but KD wins. It's too iconic. I kind of like the D. DeMitch logo. It looks really good on the shoe, too,

when the tongue has that spider on it. It's very busy. It's a lot going on. Yeah. But it's a spider. It's like mad complex. Does he have his, his initials in there.

Probably in some way. You know they always tell a story with the logo. But I think it's just a cool spider kind of looks like a tattoo. And honestly, I'm trying to see the deep part. I'm kind of,

all right. Not. All right. Okay, I will say, I think there's a basketball in the middle of the spider. Yes, see the three lines.

That's cool so. So yeah, that was crazy. That was wild. His name's D. Mitch. That was crazy. We know his name.

Yeah. I actually think that because his initials are not here, I think I respect it more. It's a little creative. That's not just as initials like KD. Yeah. So I think I'm going to go

with D Mitch's logo here. Really? The KD logo looks very of the time it came out. It looks like the Beets logo. It looks very 2010. But I like it, though. It's cool.

It's cool too. But I'm also going to go D. Wow. Okay. I'm out voted. Yep. The D. The Mitch logo looks like

it's like a superhero logo. Yeah, Spider-Man. It's got on the fire. It's tough. Deeron Fox versus Anthony Edwards. Deering Fox. I appreciate your creativity. I appreciate.

You're trying to just be different try to be you know everybody so minimal. We're gonna we're gonna actually have designs out here Mm-hmm. That's not the one to go with I'm going with it We're going at three I agree I don't even know what ant logo is. It's just tough. It's an a lot of like lines inside It looks like it looks like lines though. Yeah, what do the lines represent? I have no idea that part It kind of looks like it looks like it looks like a like a star like a shark It's a stapler remover. Oh, it's exactly what it is. I don't know what it is, but it's cool this one was say it's who made dearon fox that's an armor

curry brand yeah I know I know but it has a five the number the five's in it he don't even wear that anymore tough yeah I do think asshole is pretty cool

it looks like it lends itself well to being put on things it's not an illustration but it has enough character that's not boring I fuck with it yeah do we have a new logo for Fox

now that he wears four this is why this is why also you go towards the towards the initials if you're gonna bring radioed something. True.

The initials are not going to change. Keep it evergreen. Yes. Maybe we're back on initials now. We're off at last round. Now we're back.

We're going to Anthony Edwards. Okay. Katie's got... Katie's initials will suck. Damn. Janus versus James Hardin. I think James Hardin's logo is terrible.

That looks like a maze. What the fuck am I looking? I see Yonis's G. Yonis is looks like a maze suit. Yeah. Okay. We got two mazes. Pick your poison.

I don't like this is more fun though. Yeah, I think Yonis is slightly better. I like the angularness, I guess. The circle of James Hardens, it just, I don't like it. I can see the GA.

That's tough. But I think I like Hardens more. Is there a J on the Hardin? The Hardin one? No. It's just an age. It's just an H. Whack.

Yanna says two initials. You only have one. Big initials on this side. GA wins. Second seat goes forward. LeBron James versus Dame. This is tough, man. It's not tough.

LeBron wins. No, LeBron wins, but I want to show the respect to Dame. Yeah, let me try to separate the fact that this logo is so iconic. And then it's the go. and it's like the coolest human being in the league and it's like my favorite person in the league do I think his logo on its own

is better than Damien Lourdes for the merit of the design yes 100% yes yes yes the LJ the crown of the middle is so incredible Damian Lourdes logo I keep making a Tack on Titan looks like a scout logo it looks like yeah it looks at the scouts from Tack on Titan it does I had another

nerd one for the ant one oh what are you gonna say it looks like one of the Katsky members dude has to say the same thing what's the name the black and white face I forget his name I don't. What is his name? Zetsu.

Yeah. Yeah. Type she's, type sheet. Tatsh. Grass, right. All right. LeBronin is.

LeBron wins. Don't be on the track. I know. Come to the track. Get on this turf, bro. The fuck. The fuckers are running lines.

We love the game. What are you training for? Hey, watch them in me. I'm fucking idiots. I've been to D. 37 you. I'm training. Good luck.

I can hit stick anyway. It's going to be great. John Moran versus Shea. Oh, that's Shay's logo? That's Shay's on the right. Man, if Jock could just be a competent basketball player, he would be, I understand why Memphis doesn't want to trade him. This man is one of the most marketable people.

So you love a logo like that? Yes, it's incredible. I like his shoes. If he could just stay off of Instagram and dunk a basketball every once in a while, he would be amazing. I think these are both good, though. I don't know what the fuck I'm looking at when he comes to Shay. I see the two.

It's two. It's two. Upside down. You flip it. It's the same thing. It's like symmetrical. two's. Maybe is there an S in there too? I don't know, probably.

I'm trying to look for these initials. Well, it's like, the right one looks like an earring. Like, it's a cool, like. It looks like a zipper or something. Yeah, I don't know. I'm not a fan of the Shay logo. This is my first time seeing this. It looks like a music note. I like it a lot.

It does look like a music note. I think it looks cool. It looks like a logo. You just slap on something. If I told you that was a luxury brand, you believe me. Yeah. It's pretty fucking cool. Jaws logo clears, though. Clears?

Yeah, it's tough. Yes. It actually would. It clears. Okay. I think Josh's shoes clear. I think we're putting that into the logo a little bit. I actually don't.

So I obviously, I really like the three and the four. Shea shoes up there. I agree. It's growing a lot. Okay. I like them both a lot. You guys feel passionate about Ja. Yeah.

Jaws and stuff. Yes. Beasles and you agree. It's not really. Yeah, I don't really agree either. I like Shays a little more. Yeah. Like that's like sleek.

What happens next? Yeah, what happens next? But if you guys feel good about Jod, I don't. I'm not impressed about it. Let's get Jarr. All right. Ooh, is that Jason Tatum? Jason Tatum versus Tobias Harris.

These logos stink. Tobias Harris made this logo himself. He just wrote his name. This is the most creative logo I've seen in my life. With a pencil. The Oza basketball. Come on. But also, Jason Thetam just says JT.

No flavor, no sauce. That logo fits Jason Tatum. Yes, it does. Tobias' logo looks like stance, the sock brand. Jason Tate's logo looks like nothing What's worse? What's worse? I think spelling out your name is

I think that's bad Like actively Yeah Jason Tatein can do much better But we really didn't put a lot of thoughts This is day one of brainstorming The rough draft made it to products Let's go Jason Tato

Oh thank God no first round exits This time Richard Wilman Yama versus Cade Cunningham's new logo Both very tough Nike cooks This is not a 2-7 matcher Oh man

When Beas logo's mad unique Dare I say I like Cades a little more The aliens kind of on the nose Yeah Dare I say Cade is cool Double Cs are tough He made into a star Just like AJ's like give me a star

It's better Yeah He walked in this like We already get Kiva star I know There's only so much you can do Two motherfuckers Back to back years

wanted a star. That's hilarious. Then the basketball, alien. Basketball. Double Nike logos in your logo. Is that not nasty? You know what? That's fair. That's a fair point. Why is Nike glazing themselves? Make this about

Wembeen at Nike. Yeah. Yeah. But I do think that playing off of your nickname and not, I do want to give credit to some logos that don't have initials. Because I do think like it's a, it's a very easy thing to You keep saying that. It sounds like we like initials.

I go back and forth, but when it's like actually done right, I think the ceiling for a non-initial logo might be higher. I think we have a Klingham upset on her hands. I think I like Kade's more. I think going to upset. I know people love Webby. I know they love his logo. I think Kade might win this.

The only thing that can give me there is the double Nike check. Yeah. Oh, there you go. The double Nike chick is there. Yeah, I'm going Kade. Wow. Wow. Down goes Victor Weminyama.

Wow. Wow. All right. That's the end of the first round. Let me go ahead and give you all the bracket so far. Okay. So who advanced? Who are the final eight?

AJ versus D. Mitch. Ant versus Janice. LeBron versus... He's struggling. John Morant. And then J.T. versus Cade. How the hell did AJ get this far? Well, he only one one time.

How did he get this far? It's not very far yet. All right, let's keep going. You made a Cinderella run to the second round? That's a lot. All right. I'm going D. Mitch. AJ DeBonson versus Donald Mitchell.

Sweet. That's stupid ass star out of my place. I kind of like Patrick's Star. I'm sorry, man. I mean, it's a little weird. It's not a bad logo. The Star is kind of cool. Yeah, but it doesn't symbolize anything.

Like, you can, like, you have to trick your, way into seeing everything. You have to overly use so many words and expressions to get to the, to see where his abbreviation of his name is. You don't see it for real. That's the picture that they show you at the psychiatrist and be like, tell me what you see. It's a war shack test?

Yeah. Okay. Try to get to your deepest darkest secrets. Yeah. I don't need that for a shoe logo. Okay. You don't need to get psychological. Time and place.

Time and place. I'm going with D. Mitch. Okay. What would you rather have on your, like, article of clothing, though? Does that matter? I think that matters a lot. That's why I'm going, AJ.

When I think about basketball players, I think mostly on the shoe. I think like for a majority of the time, the logo can be on the shoe, whatever. I'm not really, I'm not getting. This star on the heel of a shoe is going to be kind of cool. I'm not getting like a DeMitch like track suit or something like that. Yeah. That's, you bring up a good point. Okay.

So I'm going to. Are we going, DeMitch? I think DeMitch is. barrel ago. I'm I voted. All right. Demit it is. Next. Anthony Edwards versus Janice. I'm not going to lie. It's a new era. I think

Ant gets them to fuck out of here. I think Ant wins again. I think easily. This is not close to me. Janus's is fine. It looks like a hiking brand. Yeah, it does. You're right. Yeah. It looks like I'm going to buy boots and like rope from this brand. I'm trying to look up to see what the

what the story behind ants is. It's a bunch of A's. I'm sure it means something. A's. You're all fine. We'll go ahead. I don't even know. I don't need to know what it means, right?

It's tougher. It's tougher. All right. Roll the logo out. Ant Wynn. LeBron James versus J. Tawmerant. Tough matchup, man.

Not fair matchup at all. L.J. King versus J.A. I guess it's like an arrow, an arrowhead. And that's, that's where job is. Is that too close to weaponry? Are we getting, we flirting with fire? Putting us some form of projectile. You're telling me Nike actually set him up?

They're encouraging his habits. Can you know that? LeBron James wins. Cannot condone that. We need the jaw in a healthy environment. No arrowheads. LeBron wins. Okay.

Jason Taddenberg is Cade Cunningham. Once again, it's a new era. Cade snatches chain on the court and off the court. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, deal with that. This honestly, who's the second round? This might be the biggest blowout. It is 100%

Of the day. That J.T.1. Let's really talk about this. Be honest with yourself, B. What's wrong with Jordan Brand? It really is a Jordan Brand problem. What's wrong with them? Do they have like different designers than Nike?

What's going on? Yeah, they got one designer of Jordan Brand. He sucks. Oh shit. He does them all. See Lucas logo? It's not on here. It sucks.

Yeah. Zion. I don't even know if he has a logo. Probably sucks. Cade wins. They've been bad. All right, Cade wins. For what, two decades now?

Probably more since he retired. The new JTs aren't horrible, though. Talk with the logo designer. Maybe the shoe designer's a different person. He can survive. Logal designers. All right. This is the new bracket.

We have Donovan Mitchell versus Ante. LeBron versus Cade. Final four. Final four. Okay. What's our first matchup again? Here we go. Donovan Mitchell versus Anthony,

words. Fuck. I think Ant wins. Yeah, I think we let the spider go a little too far. Yeah. It's a good logo, but I think Ant's logo is like,

I'd rather wear it on clothes. It probably looks better on shoes. The design principles of those like spiking things in the middle, it goes into the shoe. They got the ridges on the sides too. Yeah. It's kind of, it's cohesive.

It's kind of like, my only thing with the, with the D. Mitch logo is kind of looks childish. It's a little bit. You know, like I'm not rocking out this logo. A little bit.

Pride. You know? I think the anth's logo is kind of timeless. It goes in like a lot of so many eras I don't know I don't know if it's if it's timeless But I do think it's probably It is less childish Yeah than the Mitches

So and But you the storytelling that you that you're talking about That ruined me in a lot It's an aggressive logo for an aggressive player It fits him And wins Yeah and wins On to the finals Anthony Edwards goes

Next up LeBron James versus Cade Cunningham Man I'm so high on his Kate logo it belongs in the final four doesn't belong in the finals no it can't no it can't the lebron logo is that good even outside of being brown yeah because the the kade passes both of them obviously passed the shoe test i actually think that kade probably looks better on a shoot but in terms of apparel i think lebron clears them oh well first of all i'm not wearing the lebron james logo apparel i don't know if i'm gonna go that far that's a pretty whack apparel kate logo looks like the five-star logo

I don't know You never had a LeBron sweatshirt? I'd wear a LeBron sweats Okay I got LeBron Go on LeBron? Yeah Damn

It's close That Kade logo is so good It's a seven game series If they give Kade a shoe and they give them the right shoe To really take this logo to the next level K's logo can be an all-timer Yeah It can be

Not there yet though It's not there right now Tis the story with a lot of LeBron rivals They're not ready to be at the mountain top yet. He's been there. Staying there. Everybody's ready to challenge Brown. Who's going to take him off? Not Shangoon. I don't know. We'll see. Not Rhee Shepard.

Not you. Not you. Anybody but you. I love that. Hey, Shangoon's a win game. I'm so glad LeBron did that. All right. Championship round. Grand Finals. Ant versus LeBron. Wow. How did we get here? Who's winning?

Here we go. Old or new. Amherst, LeBron, grand finals. Anthony Edwards, you may rest. You made a run. Some might say you don't belong here. Summer question, how did you get here? You made it here.

I think it's over. Some are saying it's a new era and move along, old man. That Shangun couldn't take you down. Maybe my logo can. Some are saying, some are saying, step aside and make room for the next generation.

And some are saying that the old guard is still here and saying, back up. I'm going with LeBron here. I think his logo is better. Okay. You're on LeBron? Okay. If I'm being honest with you, if you put these two logos in front of me and also, like, I think the general population and they didn't know like the lore behind these two logos, more people often than I will probably go with aunt.

I think stylistically it's more appealing. Bees-Hos, what do you think? Man, I'm a Drake fan. That LeBron logo reminds me of over. I'm going LeBron. I'm going LeB. I thought I was one of the cats. He's like Cardi B.

Meow. Ain't I mean nothing to y'all? Yeah. Big Bron. This is multiple times. He's trying to, he's trying to get his singing off. Listen, man.

Keep going. I'm not even trying to get it off. It's just natural. Now I want to pick against you, honestly. Now I'm more inclined to go Anthony Edwards personally. Go ahead. Speak on it.

Is natural? It's natural. He did teach us something the other day. Keep going. No. I don't like what you do this Keep Going Gimmig. It sounds

It sounds nasty Keep going I'm done with the Keep going Giving mess Keep going Oh with that being said We'll let LeBron James win

He can win our first logo Bracket He can be in the grand finals Meena Oh my god That was like an air horn He's doing air horns with his mouth He's just saying

He's just making noises at this point Type shit Type shit Congrats LeBron James And that's the end of this episode If you were still here What should they comment be souls Spell that out

Yeah you gotta spell that out No that's the challenge for them Y'all gotta figure out how to spell that sound And we'll see y'all on Thursday Mew